An Unexpected Companion
by yeahsurekthxbai
Summary: She was not supposed to be there. She was supposed to be back home, with her sister. She was not supposed to be travelling Middle-Earth with a group of dwarfs, a hobbit and a wizard. But she was there anyway. A normal girl, a human girl, who had been unwillingly tossed into their world and dragged into their quest. And so the company gained an unexpected companion.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first fanfic. I've often meant to write one, but never did...this one, though, this one has been demanding to be written. I know my summary's really terrible, but give it a try? This idea has been on my mind ever since I've started going through a serious Hobbit craze.**

**This is a prologue, really - an introduction to my OC.**

**I promise, the following chapters are a lot better than this one!**

**I don't own anything.**

**Reviews, well, reviews would be nice.**

* * *

"Oh, come on, Bilbo, another story, please?"

Bilbo glanced down at the small ring of young faces around him, Frodo's among them. They were all looking at him pleadingly as he took another puff of his pipe and tried to rack his brains. He loved telling stories to the young hobbits, especially his relatives, of course he did, but for the life of him he couldn't bring up any at the moment.

His gaze roamed around his hobbit-hole, filled with the smell of food, the crackling of fire, the murmur of voices in the next room. A small family gathering, to celebrate his ninety fourth birthday. One that naturally ended up with a storytelling session.

"Bilbo, who's this?"

With a jerk, the hobbit realised that young Frodo had left the little group around him and was standing by a small glass frame on one of his windowsills, peering at it. The little hobbit picked it up and brought it over to his older cousin.

As his eyes fell on the drawing inside the glass, Bilbo sighed.

Of course. There was always another story to be told.

"That, my dear Frodo," he said, blowing out a smoke ring, "is the company of dwarfs I set out with, on my very first adventure."

"But there's someone else there, not just Gandalf and Thorin and all the other dwarves." Frodo's voice was incredulous, and almost immediately all the young hobbits were swarming around the drawing. "It looks like a human girl."

"That she is." Bilbo smiled at him. "It looks, my boy, as if you have found me another story to tell."

Eagerly, the hobbits settled down, whispering for everyone else to quiet, Frodo still on the chair nearest to him, eyes wide.

"That human girl," Bilbo began, "was known to us as Ella Aidan, and she was quite an unexpected companion…"

* * *

Ella was _not_ happy.

She was standing on the jetty, arms crossed, as she watched her younger sister sit cross-legged on the floor, a sketchbook on her lap. She had been waiting for Emma for two hours. Not that she usually minded. She loved the skinny fifteen-year-old. But she also had about a hundred and one graded assignments waiting for her back home.

But no. Emma had wanted to draw. She had wanted to come all the way to the jetty and sit on the edge and draw. And of course their parents had made Ella go with her, because they knew how easily distracted Emma could be, and counted on Ella to be the responsible one and to take care of her.

Then Ella caught sight of the look on Emma's face, serene, calm, as her hand flew over the paper before her, and somehow managed to smile.

Her assignments could wait.

And then there was a loud screech, people shrieking, yelling.

Ella's head whipped around, just as Emma looked up, starting to get to her feet.

A motorcycle.

There was a bloody motorcycle on the bloody jetty.

Headed for the edge of the jetty.

The rider looked young, scared, frightened.

He couldn't control the bike, Ella realised.

And then she realised he was heading straight for Emma, with no way of stopping.

"Emma!"

Ella had never been a very fast runner. She liked to sprint, yes, but just burst of short distances, and never very fast.

And yet somehow she was at Emma's side in seconds, shoving her to the side as the younger girl let out a large scream as the motorbike crashed into Ella, sending the both of them over into the water.

Usually, Ella prided herself on being a fairly good swimmer. Not competition standard, naturally, but better than most of her friends. Whenever they had gone to the beach or the pool she was always the first to jump in.

But now, winded from the impact of the motorcycle, the rider still thrashing around in the water, she felt the energy drain from her. She couldn't lift her arms, move her legs.

One thought ran through her mind.

Emma. Emma was safe, Emma was alive.

The last thing she saw before losing herself completely into the water was Emma's face, leaning over the jetty, brown eyes wide, hair falling down both sides of her pretty face, her mouth open, screaming a name over and over again.

Don't die on me yet, Emma.

And Ella sunk into the water.


	2. Chapter 2

They had been filling up their waterskins at a wide stream when Fili gave a shout.

"What is it, lad?" Balin looked up, twisting the cap of his waterskin back on.

"A girl! There's a human girl floating in the stream!"

Murmurs rose among the company as Fili and Kili ran into the stream, water splashing around them. Gandalf, eyebrows raised, strode over to where the two had grasped a figure between them and were dragging her to the shore as gently as possible.

Bilbo clambered onto the top of a nearby rock to get a better look. His eyes widened. Yes, it was a human girl, most definitely. But she wore the oddest assortment of clothes, and there was a strange contraption on her face, in front of her closed eyes, made out of something black and shiny, and glass. Black hair, thick and long and dark, drifted in the water around her, and her skin – her skin was brown, a sort of warm, chocolatey brown that reminded the hobbit of his stomach.

Fili and Kili managed to haul her up onto the side of the stream.

Bilbo slid down the rock to join the others who had gathered around her – all except, he realised, Gandalf and Thorin, who stood further back, observing.

"What's this funny thing on her face?" Dori was saying, peering at the contraption in front of her eyes. It looked, Bilbo noticed, as if it was made in such a way that there was a piece of glass in front of each eye, and the black parts held it to her ears and face.

"Give her a little space, won't you?" Kili said.

"She's breathing, isn't she?"

"Yes, yes." Fili was glancing around the group. "Should we bring her further up?"

The two youngest dwarfs carried her up nearer towards the edge of the forest, the small clearing before the stream. Gently, Ori leaned forward and somehow removed the strange device from her face, keeping it in his hands so nobody would trample on it.

The ring of dwarfs stared down at her.

"She's kind of pretty," Kili offered, watching as she breathed, eyes still shut.

"I've never seen anyone who looks like her," said Bofur.

Balin frowned, tilted his head. "Exotic," he declared, finally. "That's the word. Exotic. She doesn't look like she's around from these parts at all."

Bilbo didn't say anything, just kept his gaze trained on her, as her eyelids began to flutter.

* * *

Light.

Ella could see the light pouring in from beneath her shut eyelids. That was strange. Wrong, somehow. She should be dead, right? Yes. That was right. The motorcyclist. Emma. Her beautiful, lovely Emma.

But then, maybe this was what being dead was like. Light, the sound of birds, the rustle of leaves, the sounds of animals scurrying on the ground.

Animals. Of course there had to be animals.

She felt heavy. She couldn't move her arms and legs properly.

And then she heard the voices.

So very near her.

Her glasses. Her glasses were gone.

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open.

The first thing she saw, with her myopic eyesight, was a blurry face, with a huge dark beard, tattoos on his bald head and a scowl on his face.

And he was scowling right at her, fearsomely, eyebrows drawn in, glaring.

Ella did the only thing she could do.

Let out a shriek and a string of swear words that caused the man's eyebrows to shoot up into his forehead.

She tried to scramble away, moving backwards, but her back hit into what felt like a tree. And with her blurry vision, she could see even more people around her – all men, with huge and long beards like the scary dude in front of her.

"Oh god, someone please tell me I'm fucking dreaming," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again to be met with the same ring of blurry, fierce, bearded faces.

"Dwalin, you scared her," said a voice reproachfully, and the scary dude moved aside to let another take his place. But no – this guy looked old, gentle, with a massive white beard and a kind face. "It's okay, lass. No need to scream or to swear. We found you drifting in the water and pulled you out."

"My glasses," Ella managed to say, her voice hoarse, raspy. "My – my glasses…"

She put a hand to her face, her eyes.

Her glasses. Yes. She needed her glasses. They made her sight clearer, would let her see better. Yes. They made her feel secure. She would feel safer if she could see the men around her.

Or, of course, it was a possibility that she could feel even more scared.

But she needed them. Her glasses. Oakley glasses, black with some lime green on the sides. A birthday present for her sixteenth birthday. Had cost her parents nearly six hundred dollars. Something special, they had told her, knowing she had been sick of her old glasses. No more new glasses for the next ten years, her father had told her, jokingly.

"Oh, do you mean these?" an eager voice said, and someone else stumbled forward, holding out something in his large hands. "I'm sorry, I took them off…"

Ella all but snatched them from his hands, shoving them back on her face. She felt her breathing calm down.

Blinking, she looked at the group of people around her.

All men, all bearded, apart from a small man who looked the size of a child. All were dressed in layers of clothing and in what looked like armour, all had weapons strapped onto them. Ella saw knives, daggers, swords, bows and arrows, axes.

She forced herself to slow her breathing.

She drew her attention back to the face nearer to her, the old man with the long white beard, and another face, a younger face, looking at her nervously, his hands outstretched.

"Thank you," she managed to mutter, and the younger one broke into a smile.

And then she realised something else.

That they were all very, very short.

"Who the hell are you people?"

Chuckles to her right – she turned her head, slightly, to see two of the group, looking younger than the rest, grinning. One blond, one dark haired.

"Never heard a girl swear so much before in not even five minutes," the dark-haired one said, grinning at her.

Despite her predicament, Ella knew a cute guy when she saw one.

She desperately fought down the blush that was starting to rise, and dragged her eyes back to the older man before her.

"My name is Balin," he told her, "and all of us here – " he waved a hand " – are dwarfs. Well, apart from Mr Bilbo Baggins, who is a hobbit," the child-sized man gave her a nervous smile and bowed, "and Mr Gandalf, who is a wizard."

Ella just stared at him.

Dwarfs.

Hobbits.

Wizards.

She fought down the scream rising in her throat.


	3. Chapter 3

So I'm on a serious spam here. But I really can't get this thing out of my head.

* * *

"I'm dreaming," she said, out loud. "I'm bloody dreaming. This is all a dream. And when I wake up, Emma will be yelling at me to get out of bed."

The dwarfs exchanged looks, but at a look from Balin, chose not to say anything.

Ella closed her eyes, grabbed at the grass below her hands.

No. This was no dream. It was too real, much too real. And somehow, she did not believe that the men before her were acting, or messing with her. Those swords and axes looked much too sharp. The hobbit's feet – Baggins, wasn't it? – were real, vividly, painfully real, huge and leathery-looking and hairy. And the dwarfs, oh god, their beards were much too real, much too attached to their faces, much too concerned looking.

This was not possible.

She'd given up on the ideas of magic and adventures long ago.

She opened her eyes again.

The dwarfs were still grouped around her.

She took a deep breath in. Let it out.

This is real, she told herself. I'm not in a dream. I'm not hallucinating. Or, even if I am, I'll wake up eventually. I hope. But right now, this is real.

"I'm – I'm sorry about that." She managed to smile, prop herself up properly. Almost instantly, one of the younger men – no, dwarfs – one of the younger dwarfs, the blond one, was at her elbow, helping her up, flashing her a winning smile. Oh god. Despite the braids in his hair and beard, he was incredibly good-looking as well. Good-looking dwarfs. Ella suddenly felt an urge to laugh hysterically. She smiled back weakly at him.

And then she recalled something else of what Balin said.

"You said – you said wizard." She blinked, trying to focus. "There's a – there's a wizard? Who knows magic and – and everything?"

A tall, looming figure stepped out behind the dwarfs.

"Gandalf the Grey, my lady."

"I – I need – "

"Enough of this." An impatient voice cut in, and another figure, another dwarf, stood up next to the wizard, arms crossed, glaring down at her as the other dwarfs scurried to make way for him. Older than the blond one and the dark-haired one, younger than Balin, but still not bad looking. Ella felt the urge to slap herself. This was not the time to be thinking about this kind of thing.

"You," the dwarf continued, eyes dark, "are going to tell me who you are, where you came from, how you came here, and why you are here."

Ella felt anger spark in her.

"My name," she all but spat out, causing some of the dwarfs to raise their eyebrows at the sudden venom in her voice, "is Eleanor Aidan. And as for the rest of your bloody questions, that is kind of why I asked about the wizard." In a lower voice, she muttered, "Bloody, impatient ass."

At that, the hobbit cracked a smile, though Ella had no idea how he had managed to hear it, while the two good-looking dwarfs nearer her had to choke back laughter.

Almost immediately, she felt terrible. They were looking out for her, concerned for her, when they didn't have to be. They could have left her floating in the stream, or just left her in this little clearing and continued on their way. But they were staying, still gathered around her. They could be on a tight schedule for some trip or journey, which would explain the bossy and rude dwarf's impatience. She wasn't actually their problem.

"I'm sorry," she said, just as the bossy and rude dwarf opened his mouth. He stopped, confused. "That was uncalled for. I just – I just really need some help."

Personally, she was proud of the way she hadn't broken down yet, having learnt of the existence of dwarfs, hobbits and wizards.

The dwarf let out a grunt and turned to the tall wizard at his side.

"Well, Ms Aidan," said Gandalf the Grey, "how may I be of assistance to you?"

"I, ah." She paused. "Would it – would it be possible that there are different worlds, not just yours? Or something like that? And, uh, that you could travel across them?"

The wizard's eyebrows shot up into his tall, pointed hat.

"Why, yes, Ms Aidan," he said, slowly. "There are. Unfortunately, the problem with inter-world, or inter-dimension travelling, is that nobody knows how it works. We do know, however," and at this he looked at her gravely, "that they occur only when one dies before their time, though this is not always the case. It is unpredictable. And that it only ever happens to a single person once."

Ella could only stare at him.

Nobody knows how it works. One dies before their time. Unpredictable. To a single person once.

Single person.

Once.

The words swirled about in her head.

"Excuse me, lassie," said Balin, gently, glancing back at Gandalf, who nodded, "you wouldn't be one of these travellers, would you?"

Ella stared blankly at him.

Nodded her head, once.

"I think so."

Her voice was a whisper.

"How do we know you're speaking the truth?" the rude dwarf next to Gandalf asked. "That you're not just a spy?"

Ella opened her mouth to retort – and then shut it. He did have a point, no matter how offensive Ella found it to be. Coming out of nowhere, dressed in probably what they considered the strangest fashion choice ever, claiming to be from another world.

"If I may," Gandalf said, leaning forwards, his eyes merry, "inter-dimension travellers always have a mark on the inside of their right wrists."

Without hesitation, she held out her right arm, pushed back the mess of colourful bracelets to show the inside of her wrist. A mark – a swirl of patterns, blue in colour, dizzying and never ending.

"Ah, yes," he murmured, examining it. "Yes." He leaned back, looked at the dwarf beside him. "She is not from this world." His eyes flickered to her own. "And there is truth in her eyes."

The dwarf grunted.

* * *

Fili was grinning at Kili when he'd helped the human girl up, causing Kili to make a face at his older brother.

Kili decided not to let his older brother know that the girl had flushed, face turning a slight pink, after he'd helped her up.

It was after Gandalf's proclamation that the girl indeed was from a different world that the girl sneezed.

In an instant, three cloaks were offered to her, outstretched arms in front of her face.

The girl – Eleanor Aidan, wasn't it? – looked up and immediately blushed again when she saw the three cloaks.

She looked very strange with the funny thing on her face, glasses or whatever they were called, but still kind of pretty. Not a beautiful kind of pretty; not a sweet, gentle kind of pretty; not even a fierce kind of pretty. No, she was a little plain, but still – still kind of pretty.

Kili pushed the thoughts out of his head,

He wasn't surprised to see that Fili had offered his own cloak – of course he had – but he was surprised to see that the third person holding out his own cloak was Ori, looking at her shyly.

After glancing around at the three of them, frightened, she took Ori's cloak, smiling back at him just as shyly and murmuring a "thank you".

"You're soaked to the skin, lass," Gloin informed her as she wrapped the cloak around herself.

She looked back at him, raised her chin.

"I suppose that is what happens when you're floating down a stream." A hesitant smile, and another shy thank you.

"Why don't we get you into some dry clothes, yes, then we'll introduce you to everyone properly?" Balin was saying, supporting her elbow as she got to her feet unsteadily, shivering.

She looked embarrassed. "I, ah, I don't have any spare clothes."

"I've got a spare set," Kili said, quickly, before Fili could open his mouth. He noticed Thorin glaring at him darkly, but chose to pretend not to see his uncle. "I could loan them to you."

She gave him an uncertain, grateful smile, and he hurried back to his pony, not realising he was grinning goofily.

He came back a few minutes later, holding a light-coloured top and dark trousers.

"Someone needs to take care of you while you get changed," he said as he handed over his clothes. He grinned at her, widely. "I could do that."

He saw her blush furiously, before it faded and a steely look came into her eyes.

"You know, it's quite alright," she said, pleasantly, shoving the clothes back into his arms, "if that's what your offer consists of, I'm quite happy to walk around dripping wet."

Kili opened his mouth to protest when she suddenly looked at him, eyes growing wide, stepped back, and started looking around her furiously.

* * *

Dwarfs were meant to be short. Ella knew that.

And she was a tall girl. She knew that too. She towered over all the girls in her class, and half the guys, not to mention a fair number of senior boys that she knew.

But she was slightly shorter than all the dwarfs.

Perhaps only slightly taller than the hobbit.

"I'm short," she found herself saying.

The dark-haired dwarf blinked at her, still holding his rejected spare set of clothes in his arms. "What?"

She felt panic building up in her.

"I'm supposed to be taller," she found herself saying, sounding desperate. In a part of her mind, there was a part of her that found this funny, that she was worrying more about not being her usual height as compared to being in a different world. "I'm – I'm not supposed to be this short. I'm _tall_. And I – I'm tiny. I'm tiny now. I'm freaking tiny."

"Such incidents do happen," Gandalf stepped forward, looking at her apologetically.

She took a deep breath.

Well, at least her clothes and everything on her and shrunk with her.

She took another deep breath, looked up at Balin.

Oh god.

Tiny. Tiny. Tiny Ella Aidan.

She let out a deep breath.

Being tinier than usual, she told herself, is not the biggest problem right now.


	4. Chapter 4

Watching her, Bilbo couldn't help feeling sorry for her.

Alright, she was a little odd. And from a different world – what was all that about? Even Gandalf was looking at her curiously, like he wasn't quite sure what to make of her.

After watching her reject Kili's clothes with a hard note in her voice – he was quite sure the young dwarf hadn't expected that at all – Bilbo hurried to his pack, which was thankfully not very far away, and took out a neatly folded spare set of clothes.

He arrived just in time to hear her lose control over having somehow shrunk in size while having journeyed to a different world.

"Ah – excuse me." He cleared his throat as he moved to step around Balin. "Bilbo Baggins." He bowed slightly, held out his clothes. "I thought perhaps you might prefer my clothes? These are rather an old pair, a little too big for myself, so it might fit you comfortably. Because, you know, the dwarfs are rather, uh, sturdily built, and their clothing might be, well, more than a little loose."

The girl smiled at him and took the bundle. "Thank you, Mr Bilbo Baggins. Ella Aidan." She gave an awkward half-curtsey, causing the hobbit to smile.

"Didn't you say your name was Eleanor, lass?" Gloin was frowning.

"Well, yes. But everyone calls me Ella."

"Enough chatter," Thorin said, voice deep, his gaze sweeping over the group before him. "Miss Aidan, I suggest you change, you're shivering in that. Balin will follow you."

Bilbo saw Ella open her mouth, then shut it again, before nodding curtly and allowing Balin to lead her on her way.

* * *

"I didn't mean for her to take offence," Kili was saying, over and over again, as the remaining dwarfs gathered their belongings.

Thorin frowned even more and whacked his nephew on the back of his head.

"That statement was completely unnecessary," he growled, then turned round to face the rest of the company. "Take note that Miss Aidan hears nothing – _nothing _– of our quest. As far as she knows, we are merely a group of dwarfs travelling with a hobbit and a wizard. Since she's from a different world," here his voice slowed, "she won't see anything strange about our journey."

He turned to Gandalf.

"Is there nothing you can do about her?"

Gandalf looked down at the King under the mountain, and raised an eyebrow.

Eleanor Aidan interested the wizard quite a lot. An inter-world traveller, who had somehow managed to guess on her own that she was in a completely different world, and somehow had not started screaming or shrieking. Add that to the fact that she still looked extremely young – certainly not a day over twenty, and had managed to keep her composure perfectly, despite the little incident with her change in height. Yes, Gandalf was indeed curious about the young lady.

"I'm afraid not," he said. "These travellers have to find their own way in the world. And as of now, I believe that her own path lies with you and your quest."

"I will not have her trailing after us to Erebor. She is a liability. She could get injured or killed – or indirectly cause one of the others to be."

"Be as it may, I fear you have little say in the matter," said Gandalf, as the company slowed in their tasks, listening to their conversation. "From what I understand, these travellers are travellers simply because they are needed someplace else – or because her previous life left so little fulfilled that they are giving her another chance in this quest. Whichever the case, I'm afraid you're quite stuck with her."

"We shall see," was all Thorin said, darkly.

* * *

"Miss Aidan?"

Ella glanced around, from her perch on top of a rock, to see the dark-haired young dwarf at her side.

"I want to apologise for earlier," he said, quickly, before she could move away. "I didn't mean for it to sound offensive. It was just that you seemed so upset, I thought it might make you laugh – "

"No, no," she interrupted, hurriedly, before he could continue, "no, it's my fault, I was just short tempered, I didn't mean to snap at you or anything, it was really just an instinctive reaction." For some reason she was blushing furiously again, and she hoped the dwarf wouldn't notice.

He began to smile at her, about to say something else, when one of the other dwarfs gave a loud yell: "KILI!"

His smile turned apologetic as he turned away.

Ella tugged at the sleeves of Bilbo's extra clothes as she watched the dwarfs pack up their supplies and try to figure out a way for her to journey with them for a while.

The truth was, she didn't usually encounter male attention, apart from when she was arguing with them. She just wasn't the kind of girl that was generally noticed, even the boys were just joking, or flirting for the sake of flirting. No, she'd always been much too tall, much too scary, not the slim, slender, giggly girls that boys seemed to like. It had never really bothered her, though she would admit that she used to get slightly jealous. But after a while, she'd accepted it. It just didn't happen to her. And to be honest, the boys she knew would probably have to be prodded and forced into being concerned for her, and it was hardly likely any would want to offer her anything like a jacket, much less clothes.

To find dwarfs and hobbits eagerly offering their own clothes and flashing winning smiles at her was more than a little strange.

It was even more disconcerting than waking up in a strange new world after having drowned.

Drowned.

She bit her lip as Emma swam into her head, lovely Emma, with her long dark hair and her rich laugh and the sketchbooks lining her room. Emma. Face tear-stained, screaming Ella's name as the older girl sank down into the water. And her parents – oh god. Her mother – it was likely she'd never see her mother again. And they'd had such an argument that day; yet another argument about something trivial, probably, Ella couldn't even remember. And her father, getting short-tempered with her snappy comments and sarcastic remarks.

"Would you like an introduction to the company?"

It was a dwarf with a funny hat, smiling at her gently, leaning against the rock she was on, a pipe in his mouth.

She nodded, jerkily, pushing Emma and her parents out of her mind.

"My name is Bofur," he told her, "at your service." He bowed at her, straightened up and smiled again. "And of course you know Mr Baggins, and Gandalf. And then over there is Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of our company, and then there's – "

"Balin, at your service," said the old dwarf, appearing out of nowhere, smiling slightly as he bowed.

"Dwalin, at your service." The gruff dwarf paused, and then said, "Sorry to have scared you when you woke up."

"Gloin, at your service."

"Oin, at your service."

"Nori, at your service."

"Dori, at your service."

"Ori, at your service." The dwarf who had lent her his cloak and returned her glasses smiled at her.

"Bifur, at your service."

"Bombur, at your service."

"Fili – "

" – and Kili – "

"At your service!"

The two young dwarfs flashed brilliant smiles at her as they bowed, making her heart rate, to her great annoyance, increase drastically.

"Miss Aidan."

Thorin had approached the group, eyeing her with a rather resigned look in his dark eyes.

"You will be accompanying Fili on his pony. We leave immediately."

Without another word, he turned back around, gesturing for the dwarfs to get back to their horses.

"I can get down on my own," was the first thing out of Ella's mouth when Fili offered his hand to help her climb down. Stupid blond dwarf with his stupid charming smile.

He laughed. "Alright, not saying you couldn't." Before she could protest, he took her wet clothes from where they had been drying and packed them into one of the few bags on his pony, grinning at her as she approached him warily. She noticed, vaguely, that most of his packs had been transferred over to the last pony, the one without a rider.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know," he said, sounding amused.

"It's not you," said Ella, and, to her immense surprise, realised it was true; she wasn't afraid of him. "It's just – " She paused, eyed the pony. "I've never ridden one of these before."

"All you have to do is sit," Fili said, reassuringly, swinging onto the pony and pulling Ella up in front of him, his arms going around her waist to grab hold of the reins. "I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?" he asked, alarmed, as she tensed up at the contact.

"No, no," she said, letting her long dark hair fall forward to hide her face as they started off.

* * *

"I think," said Ella Aidan, "that you are all on some sort of mysterious quest or journey."

Fili glanced at the girl huddled in front of him, Ori's cloak still around her shoulders, the dwarf refusing it vehemently when she had tried to return it to him. She hadn't spoken for hours, not since they had started off. She had, in fact, fallen asleep at some point, curling up against Fili. He hadn't realised she had woken again.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, easily, the grip on his reins tightening.

"Well," she said, straightening up slightly, "you're a group of thirteen dwarfs, travelling with a wizard, and a hobbit – a wizard who seems as if his main purpose is to give you advice and guide you, and a hobbit who looks as if he doesn't really belong here and that he'd much rather be at home half the time."

Fili blinked at her.

"And," she continued, "you are all carrying an absolutely ridiculous amount of weapons and baggage."

Well, his uncle wasn't always right, Fili thought, dryly.

"You don't have to say anything if you can't," Ella said, hurriedly. "I just needed to talk after so long. And, well, if I'll be riding with you for who knows how long, I'd rather not have awkward silences."

He grinned at her as she continued looking around at the other dwarfs, glancing up at the trees towering up on either side of them. She seemed more comfortable, more relaxed and at ease, a little more cheerfulness in her voice. Possibly, she had gotten over her initial fear, and was now warming up to them slightly. He hoped so. It seemed, very possibly, that she might be good company.

"You're right, I can't say anything about our journey," Fili told her, his arm coming into closer contact with her as he urged the pony around a bend, "but you are sounding a lot better and much more cheerful, Miss Aidan."

"Ella. Just – just call me Ella." She looked faintly embarrassed. "Nobody calls me Miss Aidan. I'm just a student and everything. Everyone calls me Ella. And, well, yes, I am feeling a lot better."

"Ella, then." He rolled the name around in his tongue. "So, Ella, what are these funny things on your face?"

"These?" Ella touched her glasses. "They're glasses. Or you could call them spectacles. They help me to see better. I'm short-sighted, can't see things properly if they're far away. If I don't wear them, well, I wouldn't be able to tell apart – " she paused, thinking, and then said, "Bombur and Mr Bilbo Baggins, for example."

At that, Fili laughed, then looked at the glasses in amazement.

"Wow."

Ella smiled uncertainly. "I have something called myopia. Which basically means I just have really terrible eyesight."

"I rely on my eyes more than anything," said Fili. "I can't imagine what it's like to have everything in a blur."

Ella shrugged, pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, opening her mouth before Fili could continue talking.

"Tell me about your world."

It wasn't long before Fili was telling her about the Blue Mountains, about the hobbits in The Shire and Bilbo Baggins' pantry with its massive amount of food, about Gandalf the Grey and his firecrackers, and about the elves, whom Ella gathered that he did not like very much. Some of the other dwarfs were riding within hearing distance, listening, throwing out information or stories that Fili didn't know or had forgotten about.

"What about yours?" he asked, and when her smile faltered, he tried, "your family?"

"I have a younger sister. Esmeralda. But everyone calls her Emma because she thinks Esmeralda is too fancy." Ella was smiling as she spoke, a faraway smile. "She's lovely; she's wonderful, really. She has this lovely dark hair that falls in waves, and these really huge brown eyes that shine, and she loves art; drawing and painting and everything that goes with it. And she plays sports too, she plays something called softball, and she loves it even though she's never careful and always get bruises all over herself. And she's funny, and nice, and kind; a little short-tempered, a little judgmental, but she'll help anyone even if they didn't ask."

"You love her a lot." Fili thought of Kili, the little brother he'd once thought of annoying but now couldn't imagine living without. To have one of them without the other was simply not right. He couldn't imagine being separated from Kili like that.

"Yeah." Ella let out a short laugh. "She's the reason why I'm here, really." She paused. "Oh god, that makes me sound whiny and complaining, doesn't it?"

"No, no." Fili shook his head furiously. "I'm sensing a story. Go on, we're going to be stuck together until nightfall." He wriggled his eyebrows at her, making her laugh. "Go on, tell the story!"

"There's not much to tell." Ella turned away, fighting the ache in her heart as she remembered Emma's agonised face from above the water. "She was at the edge of the jetty, drawing, when this motorbike – it's a sort of machine, a vehicle, in our world – was coming right at her. I don't even know what it was doing on the jetty. And I just ran and pushed her out of the way. And here I am."

"You gave up your life for her."

Fili glanced at her with a newfound respect. Ella was still looking away determinedly, blinking back tears.

"She's my little sister, isn't she?" A small smile had crept onto her face. "Got to take care of her. What kind of older sister would I be if I didn't?"

* * *

"We'll camp here for the night," Thorin said, stopping as the company reached an old, abandoned farmhouse. "Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them."

Fili lowered Ella safely down from the pony first, ignoring her mumbled "I can get down myself"s as he did so, before swinging down himself.

"You," he informed her, "obviously cannot climb down a pony to save your life."

She turned away, mumbling something in a low voice.

"I thought all girls liked animals," he said, chuckling, noticing her face heat up as she realised he had heard her.

"Sexist pig," she said, as Fili just grinned at her even more. "I bet you think all girls like flowers and rainbows too."

"Are you saying you don't?" he asked, amused, as she shrugged, a half-amused, half-annoyed look on her face, digging out her wet clothes and laying them out to dry as Fili and his brother led the ponies away.

She turned back just to see Gandalf march away from a dark-faced Thorin and a baffled-looking Bilbo.

* * *

"This story," one of the younger hobbits said, "is not very interesting."

"Oh, do be quiet!" Frodo turned a glare on the hobbit before looking back at Bilbo.

"Well, it is getting late," Bilbo said, glancing out the window.

"You can't just stop halfway!"

"Bilbo!"

"Don't listen to Pippin!"

"And the grown-ups are still talking!"

"Well," said Bilbo, glancing down at them.

"Pippin's talking nonsense," Frodo said, insistently. "Oh, do continue, Bilbo!"

"Well, if you insist," said Bilbo, a smile breaking out on his face. "Now this, my dears, was when I had my first taste of danger…"


	5. Chapter 5

"Um – Mr Baggins?"

"Bilbo, please," said the hobbit, turning around to face Ella, smiling. He had been watching Bombur cook up dinner. "What can I do for you, Miss Aidan?"

"Ah, it's Ella. Please." She managed a smile. "It's just that my clothes are dry. And I was wondering if you could help me keep watch while I changed."

"Oh." Bilbo blinked. "Of course."

He followed her a little ways into the abandoned farmhouse and stood at the door where he could see the whole company, his back towards her.

Ella changed hurriedly, slipping back into her pair of black Ali Baba pants she remembered getting in Vietnam while on a school trip. She paused, blinking back tears as she remembered bargaining with Jerelee and Tiffany and Addy, trying to get the best price for a steadily increasing number of Ali Baba pants. Jerelee, short and cheerful and always laughing, a hard worker, always so focussed on studies. Tiffany, the joker, laughing hysterically, but always ready for a deep conversation about the world, from the portrayal of relationships in movies to the motivations behind particular Happy Meal toys. Addy, always so self-conscious, always ready to boost up someone's self-esteem. She could see all of them; Jerelee hunched over a book, tackling some mathematics problem; Tiffany, sitting across her in McDonald's, holding up a Tom and Jerry Happy Meal toy as they discussed the meaning behind the production of that particular type of toy; Addy, holding one dress before her and then another, asking for opinions, before dropping everything to put something up to Ella and declare it perfect.

Then Ella shook her head and continued.

She'd left on her high-top Converse, the purple straps laced to the top. She dragged off Bilbo's layer of clothing, pulling on instead her oversized white T-shirt, the sleeves folded up, and the Adidas hoodie jacket she had been wearing as the wind was blowing in on the pier.

Her watch, the white Swatch watch she'd had for so long, had stopped working, but at least she still had it, and the mess of colourful bracelets she always had on her right hand.

She felt better. Even if she wasn't home, back with Emma and her parents and Jerelee and Tiffany and Addy, she was at least wearing something that was from home. Yes; every single thing on her reminded her of them.

She tapped Bilbo on the shoulder, passing back a neatly folded stack of clothes.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure," he said, smiling at her. It was, he thought, rather nice to have someone who seemed like she had real, proper manners; not that the dwarfs weren't polite, it was just that they rather took things for granted most of the time and hardly ever asked or gave a "thank you".

"Dinner!" they heard Bombur call, and he hurried away to pack away his set of clothes while she moved towards the circle of dwarfs uncertainly.

* * *

"This is lovely soup," she said, from her position on the log, smiling at Bombur, the large dwarf beaming back at her.

"Good food is important," he said. "Want some more?"

She shook her head, saying that she was much too full; one bowl was more than enough for her.

She sank back into her seat, feeling more comfortable. After accepting that she would probably be spending a long, long time with these dwarfs, she decided that she had to trust them; after all, they had saved her and were treating her kindly. And they were wonderfully friendly and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. She was feeling more and more like herself every moment; feeling more and more like she was around old friends, close friends, despite having known them only half a day.

It was a scary feeling.

She decided she was probably just latching herself onto them and feeling so much at ease because they had found her and they were the only people she knew.

"You've hardly eaten a thing, lass," said Gloin.

She smiled sheepishly, uncertainly. "I never had a very big appetite."

"He's been a long time," she heard Bilbo say, marching back towards them.

"Who?"

"Gandalf."

"He's a wizard! He does as he chooses." Bofur pushed two bowls of soup at the hobbit. "Here, do us a favour; take this to the lads."

"I'll go with you," said Ella, standing up hurriedly and leaving the bowl at her place. She was missing Fili and his easy smiles and laughter. The earlier nervousness and increased heart rate due to his presence had disappeared the longer she had sat on his pony with him, talking. She wouldn't deny that the dwarfs were fun to be around, and Balin was most certainly a comforting presence, and they were all trying to make her comfortable, but Fili would be nice right about now.

"Stop it, you've had plenty," she heard Bofur say, most likely to Bombur, as she took a bowl of soup from Bilbo and walked with him, the laughter of the dwarfs fading into the darkness.

And then she realised that Fili and Kili were staring out into the dark, hardly glancing at them.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked, having taken both bowls and stood in between them, holding out the food and being completely ignored.

"We're supposed to be looking out for the ponies," Kili said.

"Only we've encountered a slight problem," said Fili.

"We had sixteen."

"Now there's fourteen."

They all examined the group of ponies, Ella blinking uncertainly in the darkness, trailing after them.

"Daisy and Bungo are missing."

"Well, that's not good. That is not good at all. Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Uhh, no. Let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it."

Ella blinked again. "Official burglar?"

At that, Fili and Kili whirled around to face her, eyes wide, realising for the first time that she was there. "Ella!"

"I get it," she said, taking in Fili's worried face, Kili's wide eyes. "It's one of those super-secret things about this super-secret quest I'm not allowed to know about, right?"

"You told her?" Kili all but yelped, Fili looking sheepish.

"I guessed," she said, quickly. "It wasn't very difficult."

"You, my pretty little thing," Kili said, "should not let my uncle find out you know that we are on a quest."

"Well, uh…look, some – something big uprooted these trees," Bilbo was saying, allowing her to turn to face him instead, letting her hair swing forward to hide her blushing face. Pretty little thing?

Kili, she decided, was just trying to be nice and gallant and chivalrous and a prince-on-a-white-horse type of guy. Or maybe he was just too female-deprived.

"That was our thinking," Kili turned back to him.

"Something very big, and possibly quite dangerous."

"Hey! There's a light. Over here. Stay down."

Ella followed, quietly as she could, as Fili led them to where he had seen the light.

"What is it?"

"Trolls."

* * *

"Hoot twice like a barn owl, once like a brown owl," Ella was muttering to herself, squirming in the sack that the trolls had thrown her into, gnashing her teeth. "Drop him. Everyone attacking at once, swarming all over the place, axes and swords and whatnot."

"What's that thing muttering?" one of the trolls, disgusting and slimy and just plain gross, was staring at her at where she was squashed up against Kili.

"I don't think that's a dwarf," another troll said, sticking a finger up his nose. Ella closed her eyes, wincing. Oh god. Disgusting.

"Looks skinnier than this lot," the third troll said, poking her, then turning back to the fire. "Let's eat her later. Dessert."

The other two grinned and nodded as Ella fought down the rising wave of nausea.

Lovely. Get rescued from drowning in one world to be eaten by trolls in another.

She hadn't even lasted a day.

She muttered some more, falling quiet just as she heard one of the trolls say " – fancy being turned into stone."

Ella raised her head.

"Wait! You are making a terrible mistake!"

She glanced up slightly to see Bilbo trying to jump to his feet.

"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits!"

"Half-wits? What does that make us?"

Finally Bilbo got to his feet and jumped over to the trolls.

Ella couldn't help but watch, amused, as Bilbo attempted to play for time, the trolls looking down at him suspiciously. Somehow – she didn't know why, or how – she knew, suddenly, that they would not die tonight.

"Yeah, he's got worms in his…tubes," she heard Bilbo say.

"In – in fact, they all have, they're in-infested with parasites," Bilbo prattled on as the troll dropped Bombur. "It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."

"Parasites, did he say parasites?"

"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!"

"What are you talking about, laddie?"

Growling slightly, Ella jerked in her sack to kick at any dwarf she could reach, just as Thorin gave them all a firm kick.

Kili glanced at her, back at his uncle, and understanding dawned on his face, just as the others quickly grasped what Bilbo was trying to do.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm!"

"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!"

"We're riddled!"

Ella couldn't help but choke back laughter, shifting in her sack, Thorin's eyes falling on her and his lips unwillingly twisting up into a smile.

* * *

They were untied within a short time once the trolls had all turned to stone, Fili almost instantly heading over to Ella to make sure she was alright. To his surprise, he found Ori already there, the two of them exchanging uncertain, nervous smiles, standing nearly a foot away from each other.

"You are okay, aren't you?" he heard Ella asking, worriedly, as he neared. Fili remained where he was; it was clear they were halfway through a conversation. "I mean, you were tied up on top of that fire, and everything – "

"Oh, I'm fine," Ori said, hurriedly, his face turning slightly red. "Yes, yes, I mean, it wasn't so bad, it wasn't so bad at all."

Ella smiled. "That's good, then." Then her eyes widened. "Wait here a moment!"

She hurried over to the ponies, found Fili's, and drew out a neatly folded cloak from one of the packs.

"This is yours," she said, hurrying back and passing him back his cloak. "I forgot to pass it to you yesterday – I'm fine, I've got this now if I'm cold." She tugged at the coat-like garment with a hood over her top, looking down but glancing up, a small, uncertain smile on her face, when Ori tried to return her the cloak.

"Well, if you're certain – you can, uh, you can always borrow it again," Fili heard Ori say. "It's perfectly alright, all you have to do is, you know, uh, ask."

"I, ah, I'll keep that in mind," Ella said, her whole face turning pink as she did so.

Mahal. It looked as if Ori was just slightly besotted with her, after only having known her for less than a day – and Ella had no idea what to do.

"Find the troll-hole," Thorin all but barked as he swept past them, Gandalf in his wake.

At his voice, Ori took a few steps backwards nervously, smiled again at Ella and went to find his brothers.

* * *

Ella decided to stick to Fili.

He didn't seem to mind her company, asking her if she could see as far as him even with her funny glasses, laughing when she couldn't and wincing when she whacked him on the arm. She was, Fili realised, far from delicate. Even through his garments, he could feel the whack sting.

The whacking, hopefully, meant that she was getting even more comfortable around them.

"Oh, what's that stench?" he heard Nori say as they neared the cave.

"It's a troll-hoard," Gandalf said. "Be careful what you touch."

Fili, as he had done the previous night, lifted her off the pony, grinning at her disgruntled expression.

"You're going in?" he said, alarmed, when he saw her walking towards the entrance of the hole.

"Well, I might as well look inside. As far as I can stand the smell." She scrunched up her nose. "It's not like I'll ever get a chance to see this kind of thing again."

She suddenly fell silent, remembering the hundreds of times she had heard that said. A favourite line of her father's, whenever he booked them expensive holidays and flew them all over, Egypt, Italy, London, Turkey. Then she shook her head again, pushed it out of her mind.

She clambered through into the hole.

She was out only a few seconds later, coughing and spluttering.

"Disgusting smell, isn't it?" Fili said, cheerfully.

"I hate you," was all she said, causing him to laugh.

"I'm sure you've really secretly grown to love me in the last day," he informed her. "Really, you're just denying your feelings."

"And you," she told him, sticking out her tongue, "are completely delusional."

"Miss Ella," Kili called out, "if my brother's annoying you, you're welcome to stick with me." He grinned at her, raised his eyebrows.

As he'd expected, she flushed.

"Ah, uh, no thanks, Kili. I'm good."

She moved to where Ori was instead, seated with an open book in his hands, sketching the three trolls from the night before.

Ella felt something catch in her throat.

Drawing. Sketching.

Emma.

Ori looked up when the first tear fell onto his sketch.

"Oh, god, I am so, so sorry," Ella was blabbering, rubbing at her eyes, blinking furiously. "I – I'll just go away, I'm so sorry – "

"Hey, it's okay!" Ori looked alarmed, and patted the ground next to him. "It's alright. Sit down."

With nowhere else to go except maybe back to Fili, she swallowed and sunk to the ground, rubbing at her eyes.

"I'm really, really sorry."

"It's alright, it doesn't matter." Ori was smiling at her, gently, and somehow Ella found herself smiling back. "If it's okay – I mean, did something happen? To, um – " He gestured at her face, as if wondering what was the most tactful way to ask why she was crying.

"No, it's just – " Ella paused, swallowed, wondering if she should continue or leave Ori in peace. To her own disgust, she found the need to talk spill over her, and, reluctantly, she gave in. "It's just that my younger sister – she loved to draw. To sketch. Anything and everyone and everywhere. And she was good, she was really, really good. And she'd just have this little sketchbook, and if she saw something interesting she would just start drawing – "

She swallowed again. No more crying. No.

"Ella? Is something wrong?"

Fili was on the ground in front of her, watching the girl bury her face in her hands, her body shaking slightly. Kili wasn't far behind, placing himself next to her instead.

"Yeah, I just – I just – memories, you know. A shock." She swallowed, lifted her head back up.

Her eyes were red, she knew. Red and puffy. And so was her face, probably. She was waiting for Fili to back away, mutter some excuse and saying that he'd leave her alone if she was feeling alright.

Instead, he lifted a hand and brushed away some hair that had fallen over her eyes.

She froze. Tensed up.

Don, making her laugh as they stood on the beach with their class during a barbeque, brushing her hair away and asking her why she had cut bangs.

No. No. Everything had to go. She couldn't break down like this every time she was reminded of something. Especially not if she could ever return.

"I'm fine," she said, moving her face back, away from his hand. Turned to Ori. "Could I see any of your other sketches?"


	6. Chapter 6

So I was just looking through the (few) reviews that I've gotten!

If anyone has any criticism on my writing or whatever, or has any suggestions or whatnot, feel free to review!

Haha I'm so happy that people enjoy this story, and that you guys like Ella!

* * *

"Ella, my dear, this is for you."

She blinked when Gandalf handed her what looked like a dusty dagger, in a scabbard. He and Thorin had found another Elvish blade in the troll-cave; and, agreeing that she would need some form of protection, had picked up the dagger.

It was light and long, beautifully crafted, gleaming in the sunlight. She drew it out slowly, lifting it up to see it properly in the light. He saw her eyes widen as she ran her eyes over it.

"Thank you," she said, finally, sheathing it. "It's beautiful. But I don't know how to use it."

"Hopefully you won't have to. And I'm sure Master Fili would be sure to jump up in front of you at the first sign of danger as well." He raised his eyebrows, smiling at her, and noticed her face had turned slightly pink.

He paused, took another long look at her.

Ella Aidan. A mystery he was determined to unravel.

"If I may ask, my dear," he said, gently, "how did you realise so quickly that you were in a different world?"

She blinked, swallowed, glanced down at her feet with her strange black shoes and then looked back up at him.

"Well, it was really the dwarfs and hobbit and wizard part." She smiled at him weakly. "From – from where I come from, they don't exist. Well, they do exist – but in stories and fairytales, legends and myths. Not real beings. There's just people – humans – well, men, I suppose. And you were all much too real to be some sort of prank or joke or dream."

She glanced around.

"And my world – well, it could never be as green as this. It could hardly be as beautiful."

Gandalf was still looking at her, gently.

"And, you know, when I was younger, I loved all those fairytales and stories." Ella had fixed her eyes on the dwarfs now, moving around, discussing the treasure in the troll-hole. "And I sort of hoped, I'd always hoped, that they really could be real. That they were real. So when I landed here – it was, well, it was the first thing I thought of, really. That you all had to be real."

She smiled up at him uncertainly, and Gandalf smiled back down at her.

He'd known most men, or women, to be extremely, terribly narrow-minded. And Ella Aidan, despite her youth – or maybe simply because it was because of her youth – was so open that she had simply accepted the fact that she was so obviously thrown into a different world, because it was, to her, the most logical explanation.

It was, Gandalf thought, astounding. Even most of the elves had had a hard time believing in travelling between worlds - he remembered having a hard time grasping it himself, all those years ago.

"Thank you, Miss Ella," he said, and Ella nodded uncertainly.

With another smile, he turned to Bilbo.

* * *

"Something's coming!"

When Ella first heard Thorin's shout, she instinctively wove her way towards Fili, who already had both blades out and was looking around. Catching sight of her, he promptly positioned himself in front of her. "Stay behind me."

Ella figured that it was an excellent plan.

"Thieves! Fire! Murder!" a voice was shrieking, yelling, as huge rabbits pulling a sled leapt into the middle of their company and came to an abrupt halt.

Rabbits.

Ella felt a bubble of laughter build up in her hysterically, and had to choke back her laughter when she saw the man standing in the sled.

"Radagast!"

It was Gandalf, sheathing his sword, marching forwards with a frown on his face. "Radagast the Brown. What on earth are you doing here?"

Ella had the feeling that Gandalf was not entirely happy.

"I was looking for you, Gandalf," the strange man was saying, blabbering, really. "Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong."

"Yes?"

He opened his mouth; and shut it. Opened it again, and shut it again. In front of her, Fili had relaxed slightly, but still had his weapons out, making sure she was fully behind him.

"Oh, just give me a minute. Um, oh, I had a thought, and now I've lost it," Radagast was saying. "It was, it was right there, on the tip of my tongue."

At this, Ella let out a soft giggle; she couldn't help it. Gandalf was still looking at the man with a slightly exasperated face.

"Oh, it's not a thought at all," she heard Radagast say, sounding surprised, "it's a silly old…"

She saw Gandalf pluck something out of his mouth.

" – stick insect!"

Ella turned her face away.

Oh god. Stick insects. In his mouth. And he seemed to find it perfectly normal.

* * *

"Who is this guy?" Ella asked, as Radagast and Gandalf moved away to speak privately.

"A wizard," Bilbo said. "He looks after the forests, or something like that. He said that Radagast was a very great wizard in his own way."

"In his own way," Ella repeated, shutting her eyes as she remembered Gandalf picking the stick insect out of Radagast's mouth. "I'm sure."

"You're not nervous about a little stick insect, are you?" Fili was grinning at her, smirking. "I'm sure I could find some other insects around for you…"

"Oh, god, no. Please just no." Ella shut her eyes tightly. She'd never been much fond of insects; animals in general, really. Another memory; barbeques with her friends, them laughing when they saw her run away screaming from a cat; a community project late at night, her nearly having a heart attack when a massive bug had landed on the table, Kevin spitting out his food, laughing, as he saw the look on her face; her screaming at the top of her voice for Emma to come into her room and help her get rid of a cockroach, or lizard, or bug, that had come in through the window.

Shit.

The tears were already dripping down her face.

"Ella?" It was Fili's voice, sounding worried, slightly panicked. "It's okay, I wouldn't really do that, I wouldn't – "

Ella pushed herself up from the rock, shook her head furiously, and moved away slightly.

She appreciated Fili's efforts. She really did.

It was just that she was more used to being alone when she was upset, or either with Emma or Jerelee.

Ella had never been particularly good at making close friends. Her parents had always joked how much she was like her father that way, keeping nearly everyone at a distance apart from a very select few. And she hardly ever got upset in front of people.

And she'd done it who-knows-how-many times in slightly more than a day, in front of people she hardly knew.

She wasn't sure if it was anger, annoyance or disgust she felt towards herself.

"Ella?"

It was Ori's voice this time, gentle, concerned, holding out a reasonably clean strip of cloth.

"Thank you," she managed to mumble, fumbling with it and pushing her glasses up to press it to her eyes. "I'm sorry about this," she added, sniffing slightly. "You guys must be absolutely sick of me breaking down into tears at every other thing – "

"No, no! We're just really, really worried. That's all." He smiled at her, that shy, uncertain smile Ella had been seeing every time she looked at him. "No, no, keep it!" He pressed the cloth into her hands when she tried to return it after cleaning up her face as much as she could. "I'm all right, I don't use it much."

She smiled at him; and he smiled back at her, beaming slightly now, not looking as nervous or uncertain as before.

And then the first howl came, and Fili was at her side in an instant, and Ori, after glancing briefly from her to Fili, stumbled towards the ponies.

"What was that?" she whispered, gripping the cloth tightly in her hands, twisting it around. She had a sudden urge to cling onto Fili, but that, she reminded herself, would be absolutely ridiculous, and weak. And would most definitely hamper his fighting.

The cloth twisted even more in her hands.

"Not a wolf," was Fili's reply, grim, blades in his hands.

And then the most terrifying, animal-like creature she had ever seen jumped into the midst of the dwarfs, howling, grabbing a dwarf and leaping among them, until Thorin brought down his sword, leaving it whimpering as he killed it.

Ella hadn't even been aware she had started swearing until another, similar creature another leapt out of nowhere, howling as it fell to the ground with an arrow from Kili, trying to get back up and being promptly killed by Dwalin.

She thought she was going to puke.

"Warg scouts!" Thorin was shouting. "Which means an Orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo's voice had gone up into a squeak.

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" Gandalf demanded, marching towards Thorin.

"No one."

"Who did you tell?" Gandalf repeated, eyes flashing.

"No one, I swear." He glanced at the dead Wargs. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

Ella could barely absorb this information, her eyes still fixed on the dead Wargs in front of her.

Dwalin stepped forward. "We have to get out of here."

"We can't!" Ori called out, stumbling back towards the group. "We have no ponies; they bolted."

Ella felt panic rising in her. Wargs. More Wargs. Those disgusting, dead creatures lying on the ground. And Orcs, whatever they were; hell, she didn't want to know what they were. And she was useless. Completely useless. Give her a poem to analyse, history readings to absorb; that, she could do, with little problem. But now she was useless. With a dagger in her hand that she didn't even know how to use.

"I'll draw them off!" she heard Radagast say, and brought herself back to the present. Useless or not, she could _not _be a burden to them. Even if Thorin still glared at her, Dwalin was still cautious around her, Bifur scared her and Gloin and Nori and Dori looked as if they weren't very sure what to do with her; they had still tried to make her feel at home. And she owed them something for that, even if it had only been slightly more than a day.

"Those are Gundabad Wargs; they will outrun you," Gandalf was saying to Radagast.

"These are Rhosgobel rabbits!" Radagast stepped forward, twitched his eyebrows. "I'd like to see them try."

* * *

Ella was thankful that she'd taken to running nearly every day the past year, an attempt to lose weight on her part. It hadn't been very successful – she'd gained more muscle, really – but she had continued it anyway, finding some comfort in running around and around the school track. And she was extremely grateful for it. It was coming in useful right about then as they ran as fast as they could away from the Orc pack and Radagast.

Of course, she didn't usually run with a dagger in her hand and carrying a pack, but she was hopeful that she wouldn't impale herself on the dagger anytime soon.

Fili glanced back at her as they continued running through the undergrowth. She was, he realised, keeping a fairly good pace, and though she was obviously straining herself, her feet never stopped moving, stumbling over roots or plants only a few times.

"Come on!" Gandalf cried from in front of them, and Ella stumbled after the dwarfs, keeping her eyes fixed on the back of Fili's blond head. They were running across a rocky plain now, sprinting as fast as they could, and Ella could hear Radagast shrieking and yelling, and the howls of even more Wargs, and low growls and shouts of what probably were Orcs.

_Don't look, don't look, do **not** look. You are not allowed to look._

Ella could hardly take in anyything; she was only aware of dashing across the plain, pausing once in a while to take cover behind some rocks whenever the Orc pack drew too close, following Gandalf's tall grey figure as he continued leading them.

And then the next time they stopped, Ella was suddenly very aware of a low growling and sniffing on top of the rock behind them. Fili had still kept her close to him, eyes flicking around them, pushing her as far back into the rock as she could possibly go, pressing her between his brother and himself.

Movement just in front of them, and Kili whirled out and shot an arrow straight at the Warg.

Ella had to clamp her hand over her mouth when the Warg and the Orc fell onto the ground.

The Orc had to be the most disgusting creatures she had ever seen. Vaguely humanoid, but a growling, vile mess, snapping and snarling and whirling its blade around as the dwarfs repeatedly stabbed and slashed at it, until it fell limp.

Then she heard a loud and a yell in a strange, guttural language, and howling nearing them, the thump of the Wargs' feet against the ground as they realised where the dwarfs were.

And then Fili grabbed Ella's hand and they were running, flying across the rocky ground, as the Wargs howled and started chasing after them. Ella could hardly think, did her best not to glance back around at them.

One, two, three, four. She kept counting in her head, steadily, putting one foot in front of the other, sprinting as fast as she could, only vaguely aware of her hand wrapped in Fili's, tugging her along.

And then they suddenly stopped, and Fili was still in front of her, making sure she was covered, surrounded by the rest of the company.

"There's more of them coming!"

"Kili! Shoot them!"

And arrows were flying, thudding into the Wargs and the Orcs, and they were releasing loud howls as they fell to the ground. But still there were more, more coming.

"We're surrounded!" Fili yelled, still shielding her, backing her closer into the circle of dwarfs.

"Where is Gandalf?" Kili shouted as he let loose arrow after arrow.

"He has abandoned us!" Even loud, Dwalin's voice was still a growl.

They gathered closer together in a circle, Ella close to Fili, Fili close to Ella. A rock flew towards one of the approaching Wargs, hit him in the face and flew away; the Warg continued moving towards them, growling. Ella saw Ori's eyes go wide, lower his slingshot, stumble backwards, closer to the others.

"Hold your ground!" Thorin yelled, as he drew out his sword, the blade glinting in the sunlight.

And then Gandalf's voice –

"This way, you fools!"

And the next thing Ella knew, Fili had pushed her down the side of a hole, rolling along until she hit the bottom, gasping, everything suddenly clear-cut and in focus. She scrambled over to the side just as she was followed by the dwarfs, all tumbling down into the hole.

Ella couldn't see Fili's blond head anywhere.

"Fili!" she shrieked, moving back to the bottom, where she could look up. Thorin was standing there, sword out, hollering something that sounded a lot like Kili's name.

And then Fili tumbled down into the hole, followed by his brother and Thorin, and Ella sank against the side of the hole, her breathing suddenly a whole lot easier.

Ella's ears pricked up as a horn sounded, long and loud.

"Are you all right, Ella?"

Ori was beside her suddenly, looking at her worriedly, his voice full of concern.

She managed a smile, "Thank you, Ori, yes, I think I'm – "

Her voice broke off into a high-pitched shriek as a Warg flew through the hole and landed in front of her, an arrow in its body.

Thorin gave her a dark look, reached forward and plucked out the arrow, examining it.

"Elves."

There was venom in his voice.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads," Dwalin called, as he stood at the back of the cave, looking in front of him. "Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it, of course!" Bofur's reply was immediate as he scurried after the tattooed dwarf.

"I think that would be wise," Gandalf murmured, and the dwarfs began to march through the cave, making for the pathway.

"Ella."

A hand was around her shoulders, steadying her as she took shallow breaths, her vision filled only with blood and gore and the arrow in the Warg's side. She hadn't realised that she was standing frozen in front of the Warg, her eyes still on it.

"Ella. Breathe. Come on. You can look at me instead. Don't look at it."

"Don't look at it," Ella repeated, softly, and turned her head and buried her face into Fili's shoulder.

She didn't see the glance Ori cast back at her as he followed the rest of the company into the tunnel, nor Kili's raised eyebrows at his brother, whose own eyes were solely fixed on the dark girl in his arms.

"It's okay. It's okay. Shh. Come on. We'll follow the pathway, okay? No more staying here with the ugly dead Warg."

He heard a soft, choked laugh.

"That's right, we can leave the ugly dead Warg to rot. Come on, now."

"I'm sorry," he heard her mumble into his coat. "I'm sorry. I'm so weak. And useless. And pathetic. I'm such a burden."

And, slowly, Ella peeled herself away from him and followed the rest of the dwarfs down the pathway.

* * *

Finally, finally the tunnel opened up, and Ella staggered forward, into the open space, trying to discreetly get further away from Fili.

She'd been chiding herself the whole way, telling herself what a burden she was on poor Fili, who was already trying to make sure his reckless brother didn't do anything stupid. And just now, with the dead Warg in front of her – her face heated up constantly whenever she thought of it, how she had pressed her face into Fili's shoulder.

Stupid, stupid weakling.

And so now she moved forward to stand next to Bofur, only looking up when she was sure she was a fair distance away from Fili; it was lucky there were so many dwarfs and that she was slight enough to slip through them.

And her jaw dropped.

"The Valley of Imraldis. In the Common Tongue, it's known by another name," Gandalf was saying from somewhere behind her.

And then Bilbo spoke.

"Rivendell."


	7. Chapter 7

Hello! Was in a serious writing mood tonight, so here it is! Thank you to all those who reviewed! Never knew reading reviews would be so nice hahaha.

Anyway, this chapter's not much, but there's a little Emma, a little Ella and Fili and Kili and Ori, so hopefully it's still okay!

I'm really still figuring out exactly how big a role Ella will have, so if there's any suggestions, please feel free to review, yeah!

* * *

It was well past midnight.

Emma lay curled up on her bed, the blanket pulled around her, absorbing the photos on the walls.

Before, her mother had always been nagging at her to take down her posters and pictures from the walls, telling her they were unsightly, that they would spoil her room.

Her mother hadn't said anything like that for a long, long time.

Emma choked and had to lower her head, burying her face in her blanket.

Every single photo or drawing on the walls were of Ella.

Ella, her Ella, laughing, making faces, smiling, sticking out her tongue, looking away, narrowing her eyes, glancing out over the distance, a silhouette on the beach, a whirling figure in a white dress, a face squashed up against the camera. So many photos, a dozen different emotions, all captured in the photos on the walls.

They'd spent the first few days in shock, Emma and her parents. Sobbing. Breaking down. Not eating. Not leaving the house.

And then came the news that they couldn't find the body, and that was when her mother had lost it completely. It had been the breaking point for her.

Her father had only swallowed, the glint of tears in his eyes as he'd nodded.

Emma had only turned away.

Jerelee and Tiffany and Addy had come over, and the twins Bella and Beatrix, and Delilah and Alison. Bella and Beatrix had stayed in Emma's room with her, the three of them hugging, not saying a word. Bella and Beatrix had grown up with them, through primary school, and learning how to ride a bike, and when they first discovered the stress of exams. They'd always been Ella's special friends, being the same age, but had always regarded Emma as a younger sister.

Delilah and Alison had only stood together, hands in each other's, staring blankly at a photo hanging on Ella's bedroom wall, a blown-up shot of the three of them, in dresses and high heels, smiling widely at the camera.

Jerelee and Tiffany and Addy had crumpled onto the floor at the top of the stairs right at the door of Ella's room, unable to look the photo of the four of them hanging over Ella's bed in a handpainted wooden frame, sweaty and laughing and their hair messed up from the wind, in front of a group of bikes.

Ella. Her Ella. Always tired, stressed out from school, but always with a smile on for her younger sister. Bickering, laughing, making fun of each other, shoving each other, insulting each other with huge grins on their faces.

Emma swallowed.

She lifted her head and glanced at the open sketchbook on the bed in front of her.

It had been a new book. Absolutely brand new and an absolutely beautiful one. A gift from Ella, a present for getting top in history. Completely untouched before that day at the jetty.

And now page after page was full.

Slowly, her hand shaking, she reached out and flipped through it.

Ella, alive and well, with a group of short men with bears and a funny human-like creature with incredibly large feet, and a tall towering wizard.

Trolls.

Ponies.

A group of dwarfs, with a fierce-looking dwarf right at the front.

Ella sitting by a stream.

Some sort of monstrous wolf-like creature, with a foul-looking humanoid beast on its back.

The dwarfs, sitting on ponies, riding through a forest.

Ella wrinkling up her nose at a smell.

Ella surrounded by a few dwarfs; one good looking one, with braids in his hair and moustache; one with a bow and arrow; one with a young face, a slingshot in his hands; another with a funny hat, and another with tattoos on his head and one with a bushy beard.

A dragon, a huge dragon, sleeping in mountains of gold.

The wizard, a tall pointed hat.

And Ella, crying.

A pair of elves, one male and one female, beautiful, enchanting.

Ella, holding a dagger.

The funny creature with the large feet, which was, Emma somehow knew, called a hobbit.

She shut her eyes tightly, flipped the book shut.

Dreams.

Night after night she saw them, saw Ella, saw her with them, saw her happy.

Saw her laugh, saw her smile. Saw her nearly get eaten from trolls, saw her sit on a pony in front of a dwarf, saw her face turn pink as it always did whenever she got flustered or embarrassed or agitated.

She didn't know how. She didn't know why.

She knew it couldn't be real. Ella was dead.

Ella was at the bottom of the ocean because of her.

Because of that stupid motorcyclist who had had the gall to survive after he'd knocked his sister out into the ocean.

To drown.

She'd wanted to scream, to claw the motorcyclist's eyes out.

But he'd been crying, crying so badly, that she'd fallen back, sinking onto her knees instead to sob.

Ella.

Dead because she'd been trying to save her. To save Emma.

Emma let out a small sob and twisted in the blankets.

* * *

"It's beautiful."

Bofur gave Ella an incredulous look as she breathed out the words, moving her head from one side to the other, drinking in the view.

"You must be tired out from all that running from the Orcs, lass," he said, wrinkling his nose, making Ella laugh as she looked around with an awestruck face.

She didn't see Fili turn his head back to her at the sound of her laugh.

Bilbo, it seemed, was the only one able to appreciate Rivendell as well, she realised as they stepped off the bridge and into Rivendell proper. He gazed around him with his eyes wide, his face as amazed as Ella's.

In contrast, the dwarfs were looking around with narrowed eyes, their hands on their weapons.

"Mithrandir."

Ella turned around sharply at the voice, as did the rest of the company. A figure was walking down the stairs towards them, a dark-haired figure with a silver circlet around his head and pointed ears.

Her eyes widened.

An elf.

"Ah, Lindir!"

Gandalf had stepped forward towards the elf, just as Thorin leaned towards Dwalin and muttered something. But Ella only had eyes for the elf, watching him as he finally descended the stairs and started speaking to Gandalf in a language she couldn't make out.

"It's Elvish, that is," Bofur said to her, in a low voice.

"I must speak with Lord Elrond," Gandalf was saying.

"My lord Elrond is not here."

Lindir's eyes swept over the company, lingering briefly on Bilbo, and again on Ella.

"Not here?" Gandalf paused, looking over the elf. "Where is he?"

A horn sounded.

The company turned to see horses on the bridge.

And then, quite suddenly, it sunk in that the horses were heading straight for them.

Thorin shouted something Ella couldn't understand, and then – "Close ranks!"

Fili didn't even hesitate.

He slid through the company, grabbed Ella's wrist and pulled her behind him, shutting her into the circle of dwarfs with Bilbo.

She didn't even have time to absorb what was happening until the horses were circling them, their hooves clattering on the ground.

She needed to work on her reflexes.

Horses had always made her feel small, but now, being slightly shorter than the dwarfs, panic, real panic, was rising up in her. These horses were huge. Giants. Massive.

The dwarfs were muttering, growling, their weapons in their arms.

"Gandalf!" one of the elves cried, dark-haired and smiling, stopping in front of the wizard.

"My lord Elrond." He stepped forward now, and in an instant they had broken into what Ella figured was the Elvish tongue.

"Keep close," Fili said to her, in a low voice, and Ella shut her eyes and breathed in deeply.

No. No more relying on Fili.

In the messy little circle, it wasn't very hard to slip over to where Bofur was.

Fili didn't notice, his eyes still on the horses and elves.

"Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders," the elf, Lord Elrond, was saying. Ella strained her ears to listen. "Something, or someone, has drawn them near."

He held up an Orc sword before passing it to Lindir.

"Ah, that may have been us."

It was then that Thorin moved forward, as Lord Elrond's gaze swept over their company.

"Welcome, Thorin, son of Thrain." Elrond stepped forward to meet him.

"I do not believe we have met."

Thorin's voice was not as hostile as it could have been.

"You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain."

Ella's head jerked upwards sharply. Ruled under the mountain?

"Indeed; he made no mention of you."

This time, the hostility in his voice was clear.

Elrond nodded, narrowed his eyes at Thorin, before letting out a string of words in the Elvish tongue.

"What is he saying?" Gloin's voice was fierce, hard, steadily growing in volume. "Does he offer us insult?"

The dwarfs were behind him in an instant, raising their voices and glaring at the elf with suspicion.

"No, Master Gloin," Gandalf said, his voice exasperated, "he's offering you food." His eyes flickered to Ella. "And a bath for our lady companion."

Next to her, Bofur tensed up and moved in front of her slightly.

The dwarfs, Ella thought, seemed to have a protective streak in them, judging from their behaviour towards her after only a day.

She looked at Lord Elrond, his eyes on her, and gave him a grateful smile.

He nodded.

"Ah, well," Gloin said, turning to face Elrond after a quick, hurried discussion, "in that case, lead on."

* * *

Fili was _not _happy seeing Ella trail after the elves, watching them with wide eyes and laughing as they spoke to her.

No. Not happy at all.

Growling slightly, he sheathed his blades and turned away, vaguely aware that Ori was looking at her as well, his eyes following her as she moved further away.

* * *

Ella, on the other hand, was feeling extremely grateful.

Her long dark hair, which was already a mess at the best of times, had grown wild and itchy and was feeling absolutely disgusting. She had a feeling she was grimy and dirty all over. She was pretty sure her breath stank.

And yet somehow, despite the two female elves she was following being absolutely beautiful and graceful and elegant, they didn't make her feel incompetent.

They led her to a huge bathroom, a bath filled to the brim with hot water and a towel and a robe hanging nearby. After indicating which bottles of liquid she could use for her body and for her hair on a shelf by the bath, they shut the door and let her be.

Ella undressed gratefully and sunk into the bath.

It was maybe half an hour later when she finally dried herself and peeped out of the bathroom. The two female elves from before were standing by a window, murmuring in their Elvish tongue, when she looked out.

"We've something for you to dress into," one of them told her in a gentle voice, holding out a folded white garment in her hands. "It's a youngster's dress, really, but we thought it might fit you."

Youngster's dress. Of course. Her size.

She'd forgotten that she came in fun-size now.

"Thank you."

She disappeared back into the bathroom and held out the dress – and her jaw abruptly dropped.

It was beautiful. A pure, snowy white, made out of a soft, delicate material, glistening in the light.

She'd always wondered what it would be like to wear a gown like this.

She'd never thought she would have the chance.

She held the dress, shut her eyes.

Thought of Emma.

Emma, who would have loved to paint the dress she now held in her hands. Who would have wanted to try it on for herself. Who would have asked her to spin around in it, tell her that she'd probably get it dirty, get it covered in mud, get it covered in water, get it covered in puke, a never-ending list, both of them contributing until they burst out laughing.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

She could hear Addy's voice, demanding that she wear the dress immediately, that she would look gorgeous in it. Tiffany, telling Addy that dresses weren't that important, and end up bickering with her. And Jerelee, rolling her eyes and telling Ella to ignore them.

Another group of friends; Delilah, insisting that the dress would be much better if it were pink, and Alison, saying that blue or black would have been a much better choice of colour.

Ella opened her eyes, blinked and kept the tears back as much as she possibly could.

* * *

"Where do you think Ella is?" Ori was asking, looking down at the table dejectedly. He picked up a leaf from one of the bowls on the table.

"She'll be fine." Dori glanced at his brother curiously, then turned his attention back to the leaf. "Try it. Just a mouthful."

Ori shook his head. "I don't like green food."

He glanced around again, as if hoping that Ella would suddenly appear.

"Where's the meat?" Dwalin demanded, gruffly, digging through a salad bowl.

Ori forced his attention back to the food and his growling stomach. He sat up, looked down the table. "Have they got any chips?"

He received no answer.

Suddenly, there was a crash as a bowl clattered onto the table. The dwarfs all turned their heads to look at Fili, his hands still near his face from where he had been holding up the bowl, examining its contents, now staring over their heads at the doorway behind them.

With some disgruntled mutters, they twisted back around to see what had grabbed Fili's attention.

Fili could only stare as Ella stepped out of the doorway uncertainly.

She wore a white gown. Fili had never been fond of Elvish fashions or their taste, but the dress – the dress was beautiful on her, shimmering, glittering. It was, he thought, a good choice, a wonderful choice; it contrasted with her dark skin, but not in a bad way – it seemed to make her glow, made her look radiant. Her hair was loose as it always was, falling in dark waves down her back to her waist, and she was looking at them through her glasses, blinking uncertainly, smiling shyly.

Her face was still the same - still uncertain, still nervous, still a type of pretty that wasn't really pretty, still exotic.

But after a bath, after having finally relaxed for a while, she seemed to glow.

"Well, she's cleaned up well," Fili heard someone mutter, but he couldn't make out who it was. All his attention was on Ella.

"Nice of you to join us, lass," Bofur called out, grinning at her, as she approached the tables. "Looking well, aren't you?"

"Amazing what a bath can do for you," she said. "Is there any space left?"

She kept her eyes fixed on Bofur, not wanting to look up at Fili, still looking at her, not saying a word.

"Sure there is," said Bofur cheerfully, gesturing at an empty chair next to him, at the edge of the table. "Come on and join us!"

Fili kept his eyes trained on her as she walked past the table, her eyes still fixed on Bofur, unwilling to look anywhere else.

When she finally sat down, breathing a sigh of relief at the fact that she was now no longer facing Fili, she froze as she looked down at the food.

Salad. Vegetables. There was little or no meat at all.

She shut her eyes, opened them again.

She was starving.

She shut her eyes.

Bella and Beatrix, trying to coax her into actually ordering some sort of vegetable dish in the school canteen, laughing when she came back with only rice and a massive drumstick on her plate. Delilah and Alison making fun of her, videoing her and providing a stupid commentary as she picked out all the vegetables out of her meal, a meal she'd been stupid enough to let them order for her. Her parents, dumping a large serving of salad on her plate with a warning glare that told her she was going to get into trouble if she didn't eat it. Addy and Tiffany proclaiming in loud voices across the school when she finally gave in and ordered a vegetable dish for lunch, causing her no end of embarrassment.

She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath.

Opened her eyes.

Bofur was looking at her worriedly.

"You all right?"

"Yeah," she said, breathing out slowly. "I just – I just never really liked green food."

"Sounds like Ori over there." Bofur immediately broke into a grin. "You gonna starve yourself, lass?"

She stuck out her tongue at him, making him laugh. "I can still eat it!"

"If I may say, Ella," Kili said, leaning across the table as she filled her plate with the vegetables she knew she didn't have much trouble eating, "you are looking absolutely wonderful. Stunning, really. Absolutely breathtaking."

He grinned when he saw her face flush, nearly dropping the bowl she had been holding.

"In fact," he continued, "I think my brother's having a hard time focussing on his food. And, you know, I think I might be having that same problem soon."

He winked at her, watching her face heat up even more as she tried, rather unsuccessfully, to act as if she hadn't heard him.

Across the table, Dwalin fixed him with an expressionless glance.

Bofur elbowed the younger dwarf.

"Oh, leave her alone."


	8. Chapter 8

"Is Fili in love with Ella, Bilbo?"

Bilbo glanced down at the little face asking the question.

Frodo stared back with wide eyes.

"Well, he probably is, isn't he?" someone else said – Merry, he thought it was. "Looking after her like that, and staring at her like that!"

"But he's only known her a day!" Pippin had obviously found some interest in the story now, looking across at Bilbo. "How can someone fall in love with someone else in only a day?"

"Will they leave her behind in Rivendell?" Frodo asked. "Thorin didn't want her along, did he?"

"Excellent questions, all of you," chuckled Bilbo. "All of which would be answered if you'd just let me continue the story…"

"Oh, all right, we'll be quiet, Uncle Bilbo," said one of the smaller hobbits, and laughter broke out before they fell silent once more, and Bilbo continued with his tale…

* * *

It was only a while later that Bofur was eyeing Kili suspiciously as the younger dwarf stared, transfixed, at the elf playing the harp next to them, finally winking at her and breaking into a smile, before turning away.

Across them, Dwalin's face was hard, his gaze fixed on Kili.

The younger dwarf faltered.

"Can't say I fancy elf maids myself," he said, as he reached out to grab some more food. "Too thin," he said, as Dwalin gave him a sceptical look. "They're all high cheekbones, and creamy skin. Not enough facial hair for me."

From her place, Ella listened to their conversation as she dug into her food, trying to push down her horror at the dwarfs' table manners, complaining about the food, grabbing whatever they could reach and stuffing it into their mouth.

She nearly choked when she heard his last sentence.

_Not enough facial hair._

She felt a now-familiar hysterical urge to break into laughter. _Not enough facial hair. _Ella could still remember the endless hours she'd spent, with both Emma and her friends, agonising over their increasing amounts of facial hair and everything else that came with being a teenager.

"Although," she heard Kili continue, "that one there's not bad."

She raised her head just as Dwalin leaned forward.

"That's not an elf maid."

It took a moment to sink in; and then they were all laughing, the dwarfs at the table behind her included, Ella unable to control her giggles as she clutched at her stomach.

She really wished she had a camera to capture the look on Kili's face.

Cameras. Her father, laughing, as she brought back his DSLR camera yet again, saying something about the shutter messing up, that it was in no way her fault that it had spoiled, that it was just the camera that didn't like her.

To her immense relief, she didn't start tearing up, but there was an ache in her chest, a painful ache that didn't seem to want to leave.

And then she saw Oin stuff his hearing trumpet with a napkin to block out the music, and grin and nod at the others as they laughed.

Her mood changed abruptly, and she buried her face in her hands.

It would be rude to get up and walk away, she told herself. They can't help it if they don't have manners.

She winced as Nori slipped something into his coat, as Bombur stuff his face with food.

"Change the tune, will you?" Nori snapped as he turned to face the elf Kili had been winking at. He twisted back around. "I feel like I'm at a funeral!"

"Did somebody die?" Oin asked, looking around him.

_Don't lose it._ Ella took a deep breath in, was reminded of the few times she'd helped her parents' friends take care of their younger kids while they had dinners, their appalling manners disappearing as they attempted to imitate her, looking up to her.

Her mother, she remembered, had always been rather fierce about manners at the dinner table.

And especially when they were the guests.

She decided that maybe it would be a better idea to leave her face in her hands.

She didn't want to look up.

"All right lads, there's only one thing for it," she heard Bofur say, and glanced sideways to see him push his chair back and get to his feet, and heard him clamber onto a short stone pillar jutting out of the ground behind her.

And the next thing she knew, he was singing cheerfully at the top of his voice, and all the dwarfs were laughing, chiming in and singing along with him, tossing food at him, vegetables drifting down only to be picked up and thrown up again.

She buried her face deeper into her hands.

"Missing me?" a voice asked, amused, from beside her.

Fili.

She looked up, smiled weakly.

* * *

Fili glanced down at her.

He had realised, shortly after the outbreak of laughter at his brother's expense, that he was missing Ella's company much more than he should have.

_I'm so weak. And useless. And pathetic. I'm such a burden._

She must have thought that she was being a burden on him.

It was the only reason he could think of as to why she was avoiding any eye contact with him.

He would have to talk to her before night had fallen, he decided.

And then, when Bofur started singing, he figured that this was the perfect opportunity, and had made his way over to her.

"I'm not really sure what there is to miss," she was saying now, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"My company, of course," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "My natural charm, and of course my equally charming smile – "

"You are ridiculous." She was looking away from him now, but he could see the smile on her face, as food went flying over their heads, the dwarfs roaring with laughter at Bofur dancing on his perch, still singing.

"You miss me, really." Fili grinned and, on the spur of the moment, held out his hand. "Come on. Dance with me."

"What?" Ella turned to look up at him now, eyes widening in rapidly increasing panic. "No, I couldn't, I've never done this kind of dancing before, and I've never danced with a partner – "

"You can try something new, then," he said, cheerfully, grabbing her and lifting her off the chair, whirling her around until they stood facing each other. She looked at him uncertainly, placing an arm on his shoulder as he placed an arm on her waist and his other hand on her shoulder.

And then he spun her around and she shrieked with laughter as they twirled along to the dwarfs' ridiculous song, jumping and spinning and skipping around each other, her horror at the dwarfs' manners all but forgotten as they leapt and whirled around, food flying past them as the dwarfs flung vegetables across at each other and into the air.

And they were laughing, and she was spinning around and around, Fili's eyes fixed on her as she twirled back towards him, catching her in time as they continued dancing along to Bofur's singing.

And Elrond and Lindir, both who had been watching the dwarfs with a sort of horrified fascination as they flung the food about, couldn't help but break into small smiles as they watched the two dance, Gandalf chuckling as he continued eating.

Ori glanced up, looked down at the food in front of him, and stuffed a leafy green vegetable into his mouth.

* * *

"Would you walk with me, Lady Ella?"

Face still flushed from the dancing, Ella now turned to Elrond with a flustered look on her face, as Fili, still at her side, tensed up.

"Simply to show you around some areas of Rivendell," Elrond said, "and to talk."

"I – ah – sure." She smiled uncertainly as he gestured for her to fall into step with him.

Fili could only glare after them murderously as Elrond led Ella away.

"Gandalf tells me," said Elrond, pleasantly, after showing Ella some of the more breathtaking views of Rivendell, "that you are an inter-dimensional traveller."

They had stopped at the top of a high tower, looking out over a balcony at Rivendell, Ella's eyes fixed on the view before her.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"If I may see your mark?"

Ella looked up at the elf, his tall figure towering over her. He was, somehow, a comforting presence; and, slowly, Ella pushed up her right sleeve to show the swirling patterns on the inside of her wrist.

Elrond nodded, and Ella pushed her sleeve back down.

"Will you be accompanying the dwarfs when they leave?" he asked, abruptly, as they stood together, watching the sun setting in the distance, orange rays of light fading.

"I'm not very sure," she said, slowly. "I don't think Thorin would want me to accompany them, and even if I did accompany them, I'd just be a burden, wherever they're going."

"So you have no idea of the purpose of their journey."

"None at all."

Elrond nodded again, thoughtfully. "If Thorin would allow you to accompany them, would you go? Or would you stay here in Rivendell?"

Ella opened her mouth, shut it again.

Rivendell. Beautiful Rivendell, with gleaming buildings, delicious food (even if it was mostly vegetables), cascading waterfalls that sparkled, a peace and calm and quiet she had never known. Not even in her old life, in her old world, where every day had been spent preparing for the next, studying and studying in order to be the best, pitting yourself against everyone else.

And the past one or two days – the dwarfs, a loud, rowdy lot, always full of laughter and cheer, on some super-secret quest she couldn't know about. Possibly to venture off into the great unknown and very possibly never return. No clean beds, no guarantee of meals every day, no showers, not even a guarantee that they might stay alive, judging from both the trolls and the Orcs pack she'd encountered in her short time with them. Just moving, always moving, until they reached their destination, with about a hundred and one dangers on the way.

"My father used to tell me that I should never give up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even if it seemed crazy and reckless. He always told me I'd never get the chance to do it again, so I might as well do it when I had a chance." Ella recalled the endless number of times he'd told her that; convincing her to go para-sailing, to climb up a mountain with him for his fiftieth birthday, to try out all the roller-coaster rides at Universal Studios. "And Rivendell is beautiful. It really is, it's amazing, I've never seen anything like it." She glanced up at him quickly; he stood silently, watching her, his face expressionless. "But if I had a chance to go with them, and I didn't take it, I'd probably regret it for the rest of my life that I had given up this once-in-a-lifetime chance."

"You do realise that if you follow them, it is extremely likely that you would never return."

Ella shrugged.

"I don't think it'd make much of a difference," she said, simply. "I've got nothing to return to. My sister and my family and my friends all think me dead, and they're not even in this world. I've no home, nothing. As long as it's not particularly painful, I don't think I'd mind that much. I think the only thing I would really regret is maybe not seeing more of this world."

"You are willing to die."

"Not willing." Ella shook her head furiously. "I think that it's just inevitable. And it might as well be on some mysterious quest. And, well, I've nothing to lose, really."

"I do believe that your path lies with them, wherever it may lead." Elrond placed his hands on the balcony railing, glancing briefly over Rivendell before looking down again at Ella. "Your path in this world, in this life, is linked to theirs. They were the first to find you and to take you in, were they not?"

"Yes."

Ella offered nothing else.

"If I may ask," Elrond said, finally, after a long silence, "how did you come by into this world?"

Ella leaned on the railing, gazed down at the lights flickering below them.

"If you must know," she said, "I died so my sister wouldn't."

* * *

"Are you _burning _the furniture?"

Ella was standing in one of the doorways leading to the dwarfs' quarters, watching them, horrified, as the flames flickered in the circle in the middle of them, a cauldron above it.

"Roasting sausages," Dwalin said, grunting, obviously in a much better mood.

"Bombur!" Bofur called suddenly, tossing a sausage.

The large dwarf caught it; and then, eyes growing wide, the table promptly collapsed beneath him, causing the dwarfs to break out into laughter.

Ella could only stare. In any other circumstance she would probably be giggling to herself as the table collapsed; but now, in this beautiful place, where they were the elves' guests –

"Oh, my god," she murmured to herself, turning away and hurrying out to one of the many open balconies.

Before Ori could get even get over his laughter, Fili had already scrambled to his feet and was striding out after her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, when he finally found her at the edge of the open balcony, looking at the sky with a distant, far-off look in her eyes.

At his voice, she snapped back into reality.

"Nothing." She shook her head, tried to smile.

"_Ella_."

He stood and leaned against the balcony next to her.

"It's just – " She bit her lip, then hurriedly rushed on. "You're guests. From what I can see, elves and dwarfs don't seem to be very friendly with each other, and you were completely unexpected, but they still took you in and gave you food and sleeping quarters and everything. And, well, you're wrecking everything."

She turned away.

"That's what you're upset about?" Fili chuckled, bringing his hands up so he could rest his head on them, watching her. "We're dwarfs, Ella. It's how we are. And besides, we'd much rather not be here anyway."

"Even though they saved us from the Orcs?"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous." There was laughter in his voice, a smirk. "We'd have dealt with them, no problem. We're thirteen of the best, bravest dwarfs that there ever was. No ugly Orc pack with their ugly Wargs could take us down."

Ella couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sure."

"You know," he said, after a moment as they stood together in silence, "you're not a burden."

Ella felt her face heat up.

"Yes, I am, and don't you dare tell me otherwise," she said, fiercely, forcing herself not to look at Fili. "Don't even think of opening your mouth. You saw what it was like with that Orc pack just now – you were making sure I was behind you all the way, and you had to keep making sure I was okay, and just now with the dead Warg…"

Her voice trailed off as she remembered exactly what had happened with the dead Warg.

Then she continued determinedly. "I can't cook, I can't fight, I can't even stomach a dead Warg, I keep shrieking half the time. How am I not a burden?"

"Well, I'm just saying, you're not. You really, really aren't." Fili turned to face her, but her eyes were still determinedly fixed on the sky. "Not to me, anyway. It's kind of a nice feeling, having someone to protect. Kili learned to fend for himself long ago."

"What, like I'm some bloody damsel in distress?"

Ella could feel anger, hot, irrational anger, rise up in her. Her mother had always told her that her pride was her biggest flaw; Ella hardly ever wanted to let anyone in, hardly depended on anyone if she could help it, determined that she could deal with things on her own. She'd already been depending on the dwarfs so much the past day, a massive blow to her pride, but accepting it because there was no other choice; and here was Fili, saying that he, what, wanted to, liked to protect her, because she couldn't fend for herself?

She knew he didn't mean it to be offensive. She knew he meant well.

It didn't stop her from turning away and marching over to the room they'd allocated her.

* * *

Ella is a deep, deep person...and Elrond's impressed! Hahaha. But poor Ori! And what's happening with Fili and Ella now?

Oh wow I'm a lot more amused by this than I should be


	9. Chapter 9

It was late at night when Bofur heard the whimpers and cries coming from Ella's room.

He'd left the room he was sharing with Bifur and Bombur to light up his pipe, wandering around the quarters as he did so.

And as he walked past Ella's room, he heard it clearly – cries, sobbing, panicked gasps.

"Miss Ella?" he called uncertainly, rapping on the door.

He wasn't very sure what to do. Ella only really talked to Fili and Kili and maybe Ori, and of course there was Bilbo; Bofur could hold a conversation with her with little problem, but to have her crying and sobbing…

Then came another whimper, long and low, and he swallowed his resolve and pushed open the door.

Moonlight spilled into the room, shining straight onto her in her bed, thrashing around in the blankets, sweat beading on her face. Her dark hair spilled out over the pillow as she began to curl up, holding back whimpers. Silently, quietly, he moved over to her, shaking her gently. "Ella. Miss Ella. Wake up. Come on, wake up."

Slowly, the sobs quietened, and Ella's eyes shot open.

"Bofur?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

"You're shivering, lass." He draped the blankets around her shoulders properly, found her funny glasses-thing on the bedside table and passed them to her. "You all right?"

She took a deep, shuddering gasp as she pushed the glasses onto her face. "Yeah. Yeah. It's just…nightmares, that's all." She gave him an unconvincing smile.

Bofur raised his eyebrows, gave her a disbelieving look.

"Lass."

She gave a short, shaky laugh.

"I saw my sister. And – I honestly can't remember the details, but I remember being so, so scared for her." Her voice was soft, low. "And I saw – I saw this huge dragon, all red and sleeping in mountains of gold coins. And a mountain, a mountain in the distance, the ruins of a great city."

She didn't realise that Bofur had frozen, his hand clutching his pipe halfway to his mouth.

"Must be all those stories I read, as a child."

She gave another shaky laugh.

"I'll be all right, Bofur. Really. I will be."

"Well – " he looked at her uncertainly.

"I promise." She smiled at him.

"If you say so, lass." Bofur got up slowly. He'd no experience with sobbing females – no, it was only Gloin who had any experience with that sort of thing, having a wife of his own – and he wasn't very sure what to do.

He was nearly out the door when he stopped and turn.

"Lass, you wouldn't know what the dragon's name was, would you?" he asked. "Or the great city?"

She paused, looked up to meet his eyes.

"There were two cities, actually." Her eyes glazed over. "One in the mountain, the city of Erebor, the city of the King under the mountain. And the human city Dale, a beautiful, prosperous, great city."

Bofur had frozen again.

"And the dragon," she said, thoughtfully, "the dragon's name was Smaug."

* * *

"Bofur, what are you doing here?"

Bofur blinked his eyes open, sleepily, as a foot kicked him hard, to see a circle of faces surrounding him.

Ah yes. Of course.

He was seated on the floor, cross-legged, his pipe in his hands. He'd fallen asleep outside Ella's room.

"She had nightmares last night," he said, jerking his head towards the door on his right. "Told me she was okay, but I thought it would be better to stay out here and make sure she didn't start crying again."

"She was crying?" a voice demanded. Fili. Of course.

"I'm sure the lass is fine now," Dwalin said, dismissively. "It was just a nightmare."

"But that was it, you see!" Bofur paused, glanced around before gesturing for them to lean in closer. "She dreamt of Smaug and Erebor and Dale."

There was a silence as this information was digested. Eyes widened, mouths moving as the dwarfs murmured.

"How is this even possible?" Thorin's voice was dark, his eyes glaring into the door.

Bofur held up his hands. "I wouldn't know! She was telling me of it last night, when I went to wake her up – "

"You went into her room at night?" Kili's eyebrows were raised. "Maybe I should have been walking around last night."

He didn't notice his older brother glaring at him.

And then the door swung open.

Ella was standing in the doorway, her hair a mess, blinking sleepily, wearing a long blue nightgown that the elves had lent her. A blue nightgown that left very little to the imagination.

She promptly let out a small shriek and slammed the door shut upon seeing nearly the whole company at her door.

"_That _was what she was wearing when you went into her room last night?" Balin sighed, turned to the dwarf still sprawled on the floor. "Bofur!"

The dwarf's face was completely red.

"It was dark, it's not like I could see what she was sleeping in! And I covered her with the blankets! She was shivering!"

He glared stubbornly around the circle of amused faces, unaware that young Fili had turned his glare from his brother onto him.

* * *

"Are you talking to me now?"

Ella tensed as Fili came up behind her, settling himself onto the bench next to her. In front of her, Dwalin and Gloin were roaring at each other as they swung their weapons, waiting for Ella to rest before Dwalin continued training her.

"Yeah." She pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "Look, I'm really, really sorry about last night, I didn't mean to lose my temper like that – "

"Nah, it's nothing." Fili decided not to say anything about the irrational urge he had to forgive her for whatever she apologised for. "I saw you trying out that sword. You aren't half bad."

"I'm thinking that's a softer way of saying I'm terrible, isn't it?"

"Nah, lass, he's right." Dwalin had lowered his weapons and was now stalking over to them, spinning a sword in his hand. "You aren't that bad at all. Come on then. You feeling rested?"

"Rested enough," she managed to smile, getting to her feet for another training session with the gruff dwarf.

"You enjoy her company."

It was Thorin, sliding into the seat next to him, watching Ella and Dwalin.

"Oh, she's fun to be around."

He looked up as she moved, Dwalin sighing in exasperation, Ella trying again, her movements awkward, jerky, yet still there.

"You'll be able to enjoy her company for a long time more, I warrant."

Fili turned to meet his uncle's gaze.

"Do you mean – "

"She'll be following us," was all Thorin said, shortly. "Bofur told me of her dream, and both Gandalf and Elrond insist that she come. I care little for the elf's opinion, but Gandalf was adamant. And with her dream, we don't know if she might have any more such dreams. Elrond's already prepared clothes for her. Let her know after the session."

He got to his feet, looked down at his heir.

"Do not get too distracted, Fili. We leave at dawn."

* * *

When Fili had jumped up at the end of her training and informed her she would be accompanying them, she was faced with a barrage of emotions washing over her.

So there it was.

She was to follow them.

No going back.

Silently, she wondered if Lord Elrond had had a part to play in this decision to take her along.

As she returned to the dwarfs' quarters with Fili and Dwalin, Gloin having left long ago, they told her of their quest – their journey to reclaim their homeland from the dragon Smaug.

"Erebor," she said, softly.

She should be afraid. She should be absolutely terrified.

But for some reason, she felt at peace. She knew where she was going now, what she was going to do.

She wasn't a lost girl in a whole new world anymore.

* * *

Rivendell, lovely, beautiful Rivendell.

Ella stood on the path, looking back at it longingly. One day she would return, if it were possible. If she did not die. Bilbo stood beside her, gazing at Rivendell with the same longing, as the line of dwarfs passed them.

"Be on your guard," Thorin was saying from somewhere behind them. "We're about to step over the edge of the Wild. Balin, you know these paths; lead on."

"Aye."

The dwarfs continued passing them, but Ella had eyes only for Rivendell.

No going back.

She was going to make the most out of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Master Baggins, Miss Ella," Thorin called from behind them. "I suggest you keep up."

As Ella turned, she saw Ori waiting, glancing at her. With a shy smile, he gestured for her to walk ahead of him.

She smiled gratefully and hurried on.

* * *

"I have an important question," Ella said, that first night, as Bombur spooned out dinner.

Next to her, Fili looked up curiously. "What?"

"What is it," she said, "with all the beards and the braids?"

Kili choked on his food and had to be thumped on the back by Gloin, while Bofur started coughing, trying to swallow and laugh at the same time.

"I'm serious," she said. "I really need to know. All of you have beards. And all of you have braids. Well, most of you have braids. But everyone has beards. Well, except Kili. But I'm thinking that's because he hasn't reached that maturity level yet."

"Hey!" Kili said, indignantly, as the dwarfs roared with laughter. "Ori's younger than me!"

"But Ori has a beard, doesn't he?" Ella looked at him innocently over the rim of her bowl. "I think Ori's much more mature than you. You see. Maturity level. Like how Balin's beard is probably the most intimidating in beard-size, because, you know, he's the most mature."

"Why, thank you, lass," said Balin, chuckling.

Fili grinned as he leaned back into the rocks, watching Ella as she laughed with the dwarfs. The contrast when she was in Rivendell and when she was out here with them was so great that it was as if she were two different people. In Rivendell she had been uptight, on her best behaviour, distant, apart from that single occasion when she had danced with him. She had looked amazing, but she had been different. But then again, she also had been avoiding him. Here, she spoke easily, talked easily, laughed easily. More relaxed. Cheerful.

And she had spent the whole day walking alongside him.

Fili couldn't help but smile.

"We're dwarfs, lass," Gloin was saying, waving his hands around. "Long beards are part of the whole thing."

Ella glanced around quickly, catching sight of Thorin and Dwalin sitting some distance away, murmuring in low voices, before turning back to the group and asking, "Why doesn't Thorin – I mean, it's sort of a little beard, isn't it? Shouldn't he have, well, a larger beard, or longer one, or something? You know, being King under the mountain and all that?"

Fili remembered her disbelieving expression when she had fully grasped the fact that he and Kili were technically royalty, after remembering that they often referred to Thorin as their uncle.

She looked around at them uncertainly.

"Aye, that is so," Balin said, nodding slowly. "But you see, all those years ago at Erebor, when so many lives were lost, a good number of dwarfs had their beards signed, all burnt off. And Thorin, well, he's kept his short out of respect for them."

"Ah." Ella glanced back at the tall, dark-haired dwarf as she swallowed more of Bombur's soup.

"What d'you think of my beard, El?" Fili leaned forward, shook the braids on the ends of his moustache, making a face at her as he saw her face grow serious.

It worked. She laughed, pointed her spoon at him. "Not really a beard, is it? Dangling moustaches, maybe."

"Dangling moustaches?"

"Yeah. Little plaits on the side of your mouth."

She grinned at him, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

* * *

Ella was afraid to sleep that night.

She'd pulled up her bedroll in between Fili and Kili, Kili wriggling his eyebrows at her until she'd elbowed him in the side, hard, causing Fili to laugh. It was, Ella thought, so easy to be around them. In her old life, she had taken a long time – weeks, months, even – before getting comfortable enough around new people to even nudge them or let them invade her personal space. And here, it was as if personal barriers didn't exist, and it was so comfortable, so easy around the dwarfs and Bilbo that she felt as if she had known them for years.

But now, with the embers from the fire dying, she sat curled up in her bedroll, staring at the orange sparks with her blurry vision.

"Can't sleep, lass?" It was Bofur, with his pipe. He'd taken the first watch, and now, with all the dwarfs asleep, he'd easily seen her rise up into a sitting position and had wandered over.

"No," she admitted, drawing her jacket closer around herself. She had left her shirt and Ali Baba pants back in Rivendell, taking instead the much more practical clothing given to her by the elves, but she'd refused to part from her jacket, her Converse shoes, her watch and bracelets. Something to make sure she didn't get fully sucked into this new world. To remember that she had had an old life, in a different world.

"You don't have to be afraid to sleep, you know." Bofur smiled comfortingly at her, lifted the pipe out of his mouth for a moment. "I'll wake you up if you start thrashing around. No need to be scared."

"It's not just that," Ella said, feebly, as a blond head emerged next to her, a muffled, sleepy voice: "Ella?"

"Go back to sleep, Fili," she said, but Fili had already pushed himself up, was looking from her to Bofur.

"You all right?"

"She's afraid to sleep," Bofur said, cheerfully, ignoring the glare that Ella was sending him.

"Bofur!"

Fili looked down at her, hands wrapped around her knees. "You don't have to be afraid, you know."

"It's not just that," she repeated, arguing.

Fili rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Ella. Everyone loves sleep."

"Not if you wake up whimpering and sweating."

"You won't know if you'll get another nightmare or you might actually get some nice dreams."

"With my luck, I'll probably end up dreaming of your brother and wake up screaming."

"I'd probably start getting worried if you start dreaming of my brother. When girls start dreaming of your little brother, you know it's not going to end well."

Bofur glanced between the two of them, grinning to himself, all but ignored as Ella crossed her arms and glared at Fili.

"I'm sure you'd much rather they dream of you."

"Naturally," Fili said, a wide grin splitting his face. "Come on, Ella. You need your sleep. I'll take care of you and protect you from your nightmares."

Ella only blinked at him, trying to digest his words, before managing to recover enough to say:

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

He opened up his arms.

She stared at him in shock. "Excuse me?"

"Hey," he said. "I'll know if you start whimpering or crying. Come on. Aren't you supposed to be comforted by a hug?"

"You want me to hug you to sleep."

"That's the idea."

Ella eyed him.

A guy offering to hug her to sleep. To make sure she was comfortable, to protect her from her nightmares. Ella felt a warm wave of gratitude wash over her, and tried to ignore her once-again rapidly increasing heart rate.

Nobody had ever told her they wanted to protect her, no one except Fili. Her parents had always seen her as mature and responsible, even from a young age, and she'd soon learned to take care of herself, and later, to take care of and protect Emma. But here was Fili, smiling at her, saying he'd protect her. Saying he'd take care of her. And he'd only known her for such a short time.

She felt tempted to move closer to him, curl up inside his arms.

But there was a small part of her, her prideful side, insisting that she could take care of herself, that she didn't need Fili to look after her.

"Bofur," she said, turning to the dwarf, now doing his best not to double over in laughter, "Fili never offered that."

"Sure thing, lass," he chuckled, tipping his funny hat and moving back to his watchpost. "He didn't say a thing."

"You're killing me, Ella," Fili complained as Bofur left.

"Fili, don't be ridiculous."

"Come on." He held out his arms again. "Didn't you ever hug your sister to sleep when she had nightmares?"

Ella bit her lip. Emma. Emma waking up screaming in the middle of the night, when their parents had been away, shrieking about thieves and fire and murder. Ella had spent the whole night with her, holding her in her arms, murmuring.

Fili tilted his head.

The small, prideful part of her lost.

Slowly, Ella lay back down and edged nearer to him, laying her head on his chest as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer to him.

Apart from that single time in the cave with the dead Warg, she had never been in such close contact with Fili. Or with any male, for that matter. She expected herself to tense up uncomfortably, go rigid.

Instead, she found herself relaxing in his arms, curling up as she gave way to sleep.

And Fili tried not to think about how _right _it felt, holding her in his arms, close to him.

* * *

Hello! I'm sorry if there seems to be a super-drastic change from Ella in Rivendell and Ella out on the road with the dwarfs. It's just that, in Rivendell, she's still struggling with herself, with what she wants to do, with what her presence in Middle-Earth, among the dwarfs, means. Not to mention the fact that she was so horrified by the dwarfs' behaviour when they were guests in Rivendell.

But out on the road, she's different, because she's more relaxed, more free. She knows what she's going to do now, and that's to stick with the dwarfs until the end.

Just in case anyone was wondering! Because I realised that it's not really very clear in the chapter. And the change was quite drastic.

Thank you to all those lovely people who reviewed!


	10. Chapter 10

"So did you have nightmares last night?"

Ella grinned at Fili as they trekked next to each other.

"I did, actually," she said. "I had a nightmare about a little blond dwarf with plaits on either side of his mouth."

"I'm sure it was a sweet dream," Fili said, dismissively, "you're just under the delusion that it was a nightmare."

She laughed.

"But really, though." Fili's voice became serious. "Did you have a nightmare? I could feel you tossing in your sleep."

Ella slowed down. "Yes," she admitted. "The dragon again, destroying Erebor and Dale. But it's the second time, so it's not so bad." She shuddered. "I dreamt about Jerelee, though."

"Jerelee?"

"One of my friends. From my world." Ella shivered slightly. It was fresh in her mind; Jerelee, short, funny, hardworking Jerelee, her eyes fixed on her history notes as she crossed the street. Not seeing a car skidding straight towards her. Not looking up until the last minute, dropping her notes and screaming. And pain. Excruciating pain.

And darkness.

But, she was relieved to realise, she no longer felt like breaking down; no longer felt like crying every time she thought of her old life.

Fili put a hand on her shoulder, comfortingly, and Ella held it and smiled at him.

Neither noticed Ori walking behind them, his eyes fixed on the two of them, on the smiles they were giving each other, on their hands.

* * *

That night, Ella pulled her bedroll up to Fili's again, leaning into his arms once he'd settled himself comfortably.

"Well, that's all right then," Kili said, looking from his brother to her, pretending to look indignant, standing with his arms crossed in front of them. "Leave me out, will you?"

"Sorry, brother," Fili said, grinning, as Ella flushed, embarrassed. "Go find your own girl."

"Fili!" Ella elbowed him.

He just looked down at her, laughing, "What?"

"Quite the pair, don't you think so?" Dori observed to Gloin, who was watching them with a faraway smile on his face. Thinking of his own wife, his family, his lad Gimli.

"Cute," was all Dwalin said, his face still expressionless, as he marched past them to take the first watch.

Bofur only chuckled to himself as he lit his pipe.

Ori sat by the fire, looking up at Fili and Ella every so often, before turning back down to his book.

"The stars are amazing," Ella said, sometime later, when the dwarfs had all moved to their bedrolls and promptly fallen asleep. She was still slightly amazed that all of them, including Bilbo, could fall asleep within seconds on hard rocky ground.

"Pretty," Fili agreed, one hand unconsciously going up to stroke Ella's thick mane of hair. She didn't notice, her head still tilted back on his chest to look up at the stars.

"Glittering diamonds," she said, "in a sea of dark velvet."

"What?"

"It's just something I made up, a line of a poem I wrote long ago," Ella said. "I'd forgotten all about it until I saw the sky. It makes you feel small, doesn't it? Reminds you how tiny we are in comparison to the rest of the world. We don't have anything like this in my world. Not this kind of sky, with all the stars scattered across them, so bright and clear."

"You don't?"

"No. I mean, there probably are some areas that you can see them, but where I live, there are only tall buildings and so much light even at night that the stars are always hidden."

"Sounds terrible."

"It is." Ella sighed, curled up and adjusted her head to rest more comfortably on him. "But I thought camping out of doors on the road was terrible too. But it's not so bad. Maybe you just have to find the small little things that make it good."

And she drifted off into sleep, Fili grinning to himself as he looked at the glittering stars above him.

* * *

Ella decided the next day that she would try and get to know the whole company properly before the quest was over.

And she started that very day.

Fili could only watch, amused, as she made sure she spent at least one single part of the next two days talking with each member of the company.

She'd gone to Bofur at first, listening to him tell stories, laughing at his jokes, her eyes widening as he told her of the mechanical toys that he and Bifur had made in the Blue Mountains, telling him about some of the inventions and part of her life in her own world.

Then she'd spent time with Bifur, trying to guess what he was saying in Dwarfish or with his grunts and gestures, causing the dwarfs around her to chuckle every time she made a guess, with one of them taking pity on her every once in a while to tell her what he was saying, and with the whole game repeating all over again.

And after that she'd listened eagerly as Gloin spoke of his wife, and his son Gimli, and all the trouble that Gimli would get into, all his antics, giggling at the stories, telling Gloin of the children of her parents' friends she'd have to look after, all the trouble they caused her. She listened, smiling, as Gloin told her all about his wife, how they'd met and everything he could associate with her.

She'd spoken to Bombur about food, telling him about all the different types of food in her world, fish they ate raw called sashimi, round slabs of meat and vegetables and square pieces of cheese folded into bread called hamburgers, drinks called Pepsi and Sprite, and making him laugh when she told him she couldn't cook to save her life.

And then she'd talked to Oin, asking about his hearing trumpet, her admittance that she was useless with wounds or any type of medicine, her extreme ignorance in the subject of healing, his shaking his head and looking at her with a horrified face.

Then she'd walked in between Dori and Nori, Nori regaling her with tales of his more fantastic exploits that had gotten him into trouble with the authorities, Dori telling her about all the things that could go wrong and constantly turning back to Ori to make sure that he was all right, both of them making her laugh.

And on the second day there'd been Balin, her telling him of what her life in her world was like, how she spent most of her days studying, the wars she'd been made to learn as a history student, reciting poems from her studies in literature, with Balin telling her in detail about the dwarfs' own history, recalling Erebor and the city of Dale, his time under Thorin's grandfather, Thror, as her eyes grew wide.

And she'd even managed to hold a conversation with Dwalin – asking him about the different weapons, what he preferred, what he thought was the best, his opinions on the weapons and styles of fighting, in exchange telling him of warfare in her world, both of them fascinated.

She'd spent a fair amount of time with Ori as well, stumbling along the path with him, both eagerly asking the other about anything they could think of, him telling her of his drawings while she told him of her sister's paintings, the two of them making up stories on the spot, sharing their love of writing.

She'd even walked with Thorin, the two of them exchanging words only briefly before they trekked together in a comfortable silence, somehow managing to keep up with his long strides.

Then she'd fallen behind to talk to Bilbo, asking him eagerly about the Shire and about Bag End, about how nearly everyone in the Shire was related somehow, how he'd agonised over his decision to go on this quest until he'd finally just flung his things into a bag and run out of the house, with her telling him about her own family and friends, her own home.

And then Kili had slowed down to talk to her, flirting shamelessly and making her face heat up, before she countered back, their witty banter going back and forth once she'd finally stopped blushing at every other remark that the dark-haired dwarf made.

"I think Bilbo's very brave," Ella said to Fili that night, taking her usual position with his arms around her.

"Why d'you say that?"

"Well, you all convinced him to go on a quest to reclaim your kingdom from a dragon, and instead he's had to face trolls, Orcs, Wargs, and who knows what else." Ella shrugged as she made herself comfortable. "And he didn't stay on at Rivendell when he could have."

"Rivendell?" He flashed a smile at her. "Why on earth would anyone want to stay in Rivendell when they could see me every day?"

"I don't know, Rivendell sounds like a pretty good alternative to that," he heard her say, making him chuckle. "Yeah. Lord Elrond told him he could stay, or go back at any time." Finally finding a comfortable position, Ella wriggled around for a moment more before settling down. "Good night, Fili."

"Good night, Ella."

Fili didn't go to sleep just yet.

He lay there for a while, half propped up against a rock, watching Ella breathe in and out as she slept.

He wondered if Elrond had made her the same offer – that she could stay, or that she could return if she wished.

He wondered if she would return to Rivendell at the end of their quest.

Slowly, gently, he lifted her head slightly to brush out all her hair from under her. He remembered what she had told him earlier, that she couldn't do anything with her hair, telling him with a grin that she was really secretly impressed with the amount of effort they put into their braids.

Now, carefully, he began to braid hers; about a dozen strands in the midst of her thick hair, then slowly winding everything together into a single thick braid that hung down her shoulder.

He watched her for a while more. She'd been having the same nightmare ever since they'd left Rivendell, she had told him, with Smaug destroying Erebor and Dale. She always tossed and turned, restless.

Blinking sleepily, he wrapped his arms around her more securely before sinking into sleep.

* * *

Ella was not happy.

She let out another string of expletives as she clambered up another rock, Fili in front of her to help her out when she needed it, Bofur behind her to keep an eye on her.

Lightning flashed across the sky as the rain pounded down on them, wind howling around them. The Misty Mountains, Ella thought, was _not _a happy place. She would probably collapse on the ground in relief once they'd passed through them. She tugged at the sleeves of her jacket. It had taken a good deal of convincing to ensure that both Fili and Ori kept their own cloaks and hoods instead of letting her take them, and she was not about to start shivering and letting her teeth chatter now. Fili would probably throw his cloak and hood over her and not give her a moment to protest. He'd grin at her cheekily, telling her she'd better not do anything to mess up the braids he had so painstakingly done.

The braids. Ella smiled faintly as she remembered waking up the next morning, groping for her glasses, and realising her hair was not falling over her face as it always was. Moving her hand up to pat at her hair, freezing when she realised everything had been carefully braided together. Fili had woken up at that point, yawning and telling her she looked better without her hair hanging all over her face, saying she was not allowed to ruin her hair in any way unless they got killed.

She'd just mumbled something and packed her things hurriedly, her face heating up at the thought of Fili carefully braiding her hair while she slept. It had kept for a few days, up until they had reached the Misty Mountains.

Now with the wind howling around them and the rain pounding down, she was fairly certain that all Fili's hard work would be ruined.

"Fuck, fuck, _fuck_," she muttered, as they emerged onto a narrow trail with a steep drop on the other side, the storm around them growing ever fiercer.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin shouted far in front of them, as they pressed on along the trail, the wind battering against them, the rain getting heavier, the rock crumbling beneath their feet.

"Watch out!" Dwalin hollered, suddenly, as a massive boulder came flying out from nowhere, thudding against the mountain above them, and with loud shouts and yells, the dwarfs and Bilbo and Ella huddled back against the wall as the boulder broke into pieces at the impact, hurtling down past them.

"This is no thunderstorm," Ella could heard Balin say. "It's a thunder battle!" And he raised a shaking hand. "Look!"

It was then that Ella looked up, and her jaw dropped as she saw what was before her. A figure, a giant figure, completely made out of stone, lifting a massive boulder from a mountain top. Hurling it into the air.

"Well, bless me, the legends are true," Bofur was saying from behind her. "Giants! Stone giants!"

Their remaining time in the rain was all a blur for Ella as the other stone giants came to life.

She could remember clutching onto Fili's hand, refusing to let go; how he'd nearly slipped and fell as he shouted Kili's name, over and over, when they were separated. She could remember Fili holding onto her tightly, not letting her go, reassuring her that everything would be okay, reassuring her that Bilbo and Thorin were both all right, after both had nearly fell to their death.

"He's been lost," she heard Thorin say, and she managed to shake her head, gather back her wits and look up, to see him glaring at Bilbo. "He should never have come. He has no place amongst us. Dwalin!"

And she saw Bilbo's face fall, saw his anguished, upset expression, before he turned away.

Slowly, one by one, they stepped into the cave that Dwalin and Thorin had found, Dwalin going straight to the back and calling out, "There's nothing here."

Gloin, grinning, fell to his knees and dropped a bundle of wood. "Right then! Let's get a fire started."

"A fire," Ella managed to say, shivering, "would be perfect."

"No, no fires in this place." Thorin strode around the cave, obviously ill at ease. "Get some sleep. We start at first light."

* * *

"You know he doesn't really mean it," Ella said to Bilbo, as the other dwarfs prepared what they could for dinner, Fili having draped his cloak around her, ignoring her protests. "Thorin. I think he's just annoyed."

"Yes, at me," Bilbo said, darkly, looking at the ground. Then he looked up, managed to smile at her. "And he's right, Ella. I don't belong here. I belong in the Shire. At Bag End. I'm not like you. They'll miss you, if you leave. Fili, especially." His mouth twitched into a smile as Ella's face flushed, as it always did. "They won't notice I'm gone."

"Yes, they will," she argued. "Can't you see how they all enjoy talking to you?"

Bilbo smiled at her, a little sadly. "Thank you for trying, Ella."

"Ella. Are you all right?" It was Fili, having come over the instant he saw her upset face, watching Bilbo get up to find a place to sleep. He held out a bowl for her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she murmured, resting her head against his shoulder as he settled down, her eyes never leaving Bilbo's form.

Across the cave, Ori had his sketchbook out, his hand flying furiously across the page.

* * *

"Wake up. WAKE UP!"

Ella had only just blinked herself awake, sleepily, sliding her glasses onto her face, when the floor promptly collapsed.

"Ella!"

Fili's arms were tight around her, holding her close, not letting her go – and Ella found herself clinging onto him, burying her face in his chest, muffling the string of expletives she was shrieking, as they slid down a rocky tunnel of a chute, bouncing back and forth against the hard surface until they finally landed in a cage, all of them landing on top of the other, but Ella still safely locked in Fili's arms.

"Are you okay?" Fili's sounded worried; he put his face close to hers, making her look at him.

"Yes, sure," she groaned. "Falling down giant rabbit holes and into a cage is exactly my idea of fun."

She felt him chuckle.

And then came the goblins.

Shrieking, screaming, they crawled into the cage, attacking them furiously. Hammering and yowling and being pushed along by a crowd of small, ugly, disgusting creatures, baring their teeth and growling, snatching their weapons away.

Then she felt a slimy hand snatch at the dagger strapped to her calf, and she kicked out without thinking, the creature howling as he flew backwards at the force of her kick.

But the dagger was gone, clutched in the goblin's hands as he shot her a murderous look and continued shoving the whole company.

"Ella!" she heard someone shout – was it Bofur? No, Bofur was being pushed somewhere far in front, after a quick glance backwards to make sure she was still okay – Ori, it was Ori, twisting his head around frantically, until he caught sight of her, Fili's arm around her, protecting her from as much of the goblins' onslaught as he possibly could.

And, with all of them, Ella included, kicking and squirming, Fili never letting go of her, the goblins dragged them away.

* * *

**So I'm thinking of writing another Hobbit fanfic, similar to the usual, where an OC joins the quest. Of course, it won't be Ella; it'll be someone different, someone new, maybe the complete opposite of Ella. And it won't be a similar OC-joins-the-quest-halfway-through-and-has-to-go-along-with-it. Because, you know, I'm just trying out, seeing maybe if I can write similar scenes differently. And seeing how I can write things differently when given the same rough scenario. Any comments? Because, you know, I'm still just playing around with ideas. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello!**

**So the other day I woke up and suddenly found my inbox flooded and everything (because my timezone is probably way, way different from most of yours, so I'm like sleeping when you're awake) and I suddenly realised that there were more than 50 follows and stuff and I was just really happy you know because I was really writing this because this idea wouldn't leave me alone and the fact that there are people who really like it and stuff is just wow. Yeah. **

**So thank you so much! Took a bit longer for this chapter cos I've been out the past two days. I'm nearly done with chapter twelve though so that should be out soon! As y'all probably can tell, the storyline of 'An Unexpected Journey' is coming to an end, but will be continuing with 'The Desolation of Smaug' heh. **

**And would like to thank Lisse Mirelien for coming up with the ship name 'Elli'! It's super cute hahaha.**

**Anyway, so here's chapter eleven!**

* * *

Tunnels, endless tunnels, swinging, creaky wooden bridges. Blazing torches, illuminating the darkness, the bones and body organs on the ground, goblins shoving, pushing, shrieking. Stale air, dank and musty, pressing in all around them.

Ella was quite sure her brain wasn't working properly.

She was still clinging to Fili like she would never let him go, and he still had his arm around her, holding her close, away from the goblins as much as possible.

She closed her mind to the dark, to the damp, the shrieking of the goblins and the endless pushing, focussing instead of Fili's arm around her, not letting her go. Protecting her. Taking care of her.

_I'll take care of you_.

Despite the screaming goblins waving their weapons around them, jabbing and prodding, not knowing where they were leading them to, she somehow felt safe.

And then: _No. You don't need someone to take care of you. You can handle this on your own._

_ Don't be such a burden._

Slowly, she lifted Fili's arm off her shoulders, shooting him a reassuring smile when he glanced down, attempting to tighten his hold on her instead. Reluctantly, hesitatingly, he let her remove his arm from around her, but making sure she kept close.

Abruptly, they were shoved into a great cavern with a massive platform, a great throne in the centre with the largest, most vile, revolting being Ella had ever seen, with a swinging chin and warts all over his face, a crown on top of lank, greasy strings of hair.

She thought she might puke.

Noisily, still shrieking, the goblins tossed all their weapons into a pile on the platform, in front of the Goblin King, leaping and gnashing their teeth.

The Goblin King tumbled off his throne, squashing some goblins under his feet, as he approached them, his chin swinging.

"That is one ugly mug," she murmured, feeling panic slowly subsiding within her, recovering her wits. Somehow – that same feeling she had had, that first night when they had encountered the trolls – she knew that they would not die here, that they would not die tonight. And his face – his disgusting, ugly, slimy face was filling up her vision, taking over her head, and she couldn't pull her eyes away.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom?" The Goblin King was roaring. "Spies? Thieves? Assassins?"

"Dwarfs, Your Malevolence," hissed one of the goblins, moving forward.

"Dwarfs?"

The Goblin King's tone was disbelieving.

"We found them on the front porch."

"Well, don't just stand there!" the Goblin King shouted. "Search them! Every crack, every crevice!"  
As the goblins swarmed them, Fili yanked her towards him sharply, wrapping her hand in his.

It was instinctive. As soon as the first slimy hand touched her, Ella was lashing out, kicking, wrapping her other hand around herself.

"Fuck you all, don't you _dare_ put your slimy, disgusting, foul hands on me, don't even _think _of touching me, you disgusting little fuckers – "

"Is that a female voice I hear?" The Goblin King turned his head, eyes searching the crowd of dwarfs, and not for the first time, Ella cursed her high-pitched voice, her tendency to swear and raise her volume when agitated.

"Bring her forward!"

And three goblins yanked her forward, roughly, snickering and shoving their sickly faces near hers, Ella's hand slipping from Fili's grasp as she was dragged away, stopped only from following her by Thorin.

She was thrown onto the ground before him, thick strands of hair that had escaped the braid hanging around her face, pushing her glasses back on properly.

The Goblin King eyed her, put his disgusting warty face and his swinging chin close to her.

She tried to step backwards, only to be met with the sharp tip of a weapon pressing into her back.

"Will you tell me what you're doing in these parts, little girl?" he said, chuckling darkly, aware of the blond dwarf behind her being held back by his goblins as he attempted to reach the girl before him.

"Not to see your ugly shit excuse of a face, that's for sure."

The words were out before Ella even realised what she had said.

Oh god. Now she'd done it. This stupid quest was making her much too reckless. Much too thoughtless. What was she doing?

The Goblin King's face twisted into a feral snarl; and then, leaning back and moving away, he laughed, a long, loud laugh that was echoed all around him.

"Let's see just how insulting you can be," he said, as the goblins around him screeched eagerly. "If you won't talk, we'll make you squawk! Bring out the Mangler! Bring out the Bone Breaker!"

"Ella!"

She was vaguely aware of Fili shouting her name, hoarsely, as the goblins burst into chatter excitedly, but the only thing she could see was the Goblin King's disgusting face, his slimy, warty skin, his evil, dark, twisted grin.

"Wait!"

Thorin's voice, Ella registered, in a distant part of her mind, as the goblins fell silent at this figure stepping forward.

"Well, well, well." The Goblin King was chuckling darkly again. "Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. King under the Mountain."

He bowed exaggeratedly as Thorin moved to stand next to Ella, and Ella felt the sharp blade of the weapon one of the goblins had been holding to her back move away.

"Oh," said the Goblin King, straightening from his bow and looking surprised, "but I'm forgetting, you don't have a mountain." His face twisted. "And you're not a king, which makes you – well, nobody really."

Ella's eyes flickered to her side, where she saw Thorin's face harden.

"I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head." The Goblin King leaned forward again, his chin swinging. "Just the head, nothing attached." He moved away, gave a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours." His eyes glinted in the flickering light from the torches. "A pale Orc, astride a white Warg."

Ella could see Thorin's face grow pale, saw his surprise and disbelief, felt her knees about to give way. Balin had told her the story one night, while she lay leaning against Fili, when it had been difficult for her to sleep. Azog. The Defiler.

She had seen Thorin's face when he had looked up after Balin had told her the story, had seen the haunted look in his eyes, remembering the war, his grandfather's death.

"Azog the Defiler was destroyed," Thorin said, his voice giving no hint of any emotion – except perhaps anger. "He was slain in battle long ago."

"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" A smirk growing on his face – Ella felt the greatest temptation to kick him, even though she knew that would probably do no good and only make things worse – the Goblin King turned to a tiny goblin sitting in a basket, holding a slate. "Send word to the pale Orc. Tell him I have found his prize."

Cackling, he gestured for Thorin and Ella to rejoin the group of dwarfs, yanked back sharply by the goblins, until Ella found herself being flung into Fili, who held her to him, refusing to let go of her.

* * *

"I expected you to start screaming and panicking long ago," Fili muttered into Ella's dark mess of hair that he had so painstakingly braided. He felt a pang of guilt as his eyes fell on Kili, who was standing glaring at the Goblin King, now dancing around his throne, singing, his younger brother looking so much like a miniature, beardless version of Thorin. Fili had been so focussed on Ella that he hadn't looked out for Kili, hadn't been on the watch in case anything happened to him.

"It was the shock of seeing their ugly faces," Ella muttered, having finally given in and wrapped her arms around Fili's waist, her head leaning on his shoulder. "And then his lousy excuse of a face made sure I stayed in reality and didn't freak out." She raised her eyes to glare at the Goblin King vehemently. "It's so ugly it was the only thing I could focus on."

And despite their predicament, despite the torture machines the goblins were slowly dragging in, Fili let out a low chuckle: "And here I thought it was my handsome face keeping you sane."

She laughed weakly.

And then there was a howl, gasps and shrieks, the clang of steel as something was thrown against the ground, a loud screech from the Goblin King as he practically flew to his throne, clambering up onto it, staring down at the pile of weapons taken from the dwarfs.

"I know that sword!" he was howling, pointing. "It is the Goblin-Cleaver, the Biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks!"

Whips came out as the goblins shrieked even louder, slashing the whips down on them, biting and clawing. Almost instinctively Fili bent over Ella, blocking her from the brunt of the whips as they sliced through the air, ignoring her protests.

Ella tried to wriggle out of his grasp – he could _not _do this, Fili was not allowed to take the brunt of the whippings trying to protect her – but Fili, with his dwarfish strength and stubbornness, refused to let her move, somehow managing to grin at her weakly as another whip struck his back, goblins clambering over him.

"Fili, you fucking idiot – "

"Aw, don't be like that, El," he managed to say as he winced.

"Fili – "

"Slash them!" the Goblin King screamed. "Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all! Cut off his head!"

At this, Fili's head jerked upwards sharply. "Thorin!"

Grabbing Ella around the waist and pulling her up, covering her from the slashing whips as much as he could, Fili began to get to his feet against the swarms of goblins, trying to make his way to his uncle, when there was a massive explosion of bright white light, and they were knocked back flat onto the ground, gasping for air.

"Take up arms," a familiar, deep voice said, and Gandalf strode forth from the light, his staff in one hand and his sword in another. His gaze swept over them, the goblins staring in shock, the dwarfs stumbling to their feet. "Fight. _Fight!_"

The next thing Ella knew, weapons were being thrown back and forth, the clash of steel against steel, whirling and dodging, slashing and screams. Fili pushed her dagger back into her hands, keeping her behind him as much as he possible as he whirled about, blades glinting in the light of the torches.

He was trying to protect her and himself both at the same time.

_Screw this._

Ella reached her arm out, thrust her dagger into the nearest goblin.

And that was all she could remember for the next few moments; stabbing and slashing whenever she could, running and running and running, not knowing if she was actually injuring them or only slowing them down. But she never stopped, twisting this way and that, biting her lip whenever a goblin managed to reach her with his weapon. She had to take care of herself.

Fili couldn't protect her forever.

Stabbing, slashing, whirling, slime and guts and screaming goblins in her face; she made herself keep moving, staying near the dwarfs as much as she could possibly could, as they followed Gandalf, all of them attacking, hacking at the goblins, the dwarfs roaring and expertly killing the goblins that came their way.

She could hardly remember what they did, aware only of the goblins, the sound of screeches and weapons slicing into flesh, racing across a makeshift bridge, keeping close to Fili.

And then a loud crash; and the massive, disgusting Goblin King broke through the wooden bridge they were crossing, leering at them.

"You thought you could escape _me_?" he roared, swinging his mace, making the old wizard stumble backwards. "What are you going to do now, wizard?"

Ella turned to see Gandalf jab the Goblin King in the eye with his staff; dropping his mace, the Goblin King let out a loud squeal, hobbling backwards as Gandalf strode forward and sliced him across his great belly.

Ella thought she might retch again.

"That'll do it," she heard the Goblin King say, as Gandalf swung his sword and sliced his neck.

A pause –

And then the bridge collapsed, the part that the company was on breaking away from the rest, sliding down the sides of the cavern at a terrific speed.

And Ella let out a scream, promptly dropped her dagger and reached a hand towards Fili.

He grabbed her, pulling her close to him, his arms tight around her as they continued crashing downwards, slipping and sliding. Ella was aware only of Fili's warm body, her head buried in his chest, her arms wrapped around his waist as they fell down, Fili's arms around her shoulder, around her, pulling her close, his blond head bending down on her shoulder.

Safe.

The world was crashing around them, the dwarfs shouting, yelling, holding on for dear life, but that was all Ella could feel.

Safe.

And Fili, his arms around her, only knew that he didn't want to let her go.

Not now. Not ever.

And, abruptly, they reached the bottom, the bridge breaking into pieces as the dwarfs and Ella all tumbled down, timber and wood falling over them.

And then Ella realised she was lying on top of Fili, her face only inches from his, his arms on the ground on either side of him, her hands on either side of his shoulders.

Fili looked up at her, part of his mind wondering how on earth her glasses had managed to stay intact, but the majority of his mind still trying to absorb the fact that she was pressed against him, the remains of the bridge over the two of them, pushing her ever closer to him.

He saw her face heat up at their position.

"Well, that could've been worse," he heard Bofur say.

And then, naturally, the dead corpse of the Goblin King landed on them with a loud thud, pressing Ella ever closer to him, as she winced at the added weight, her nose now practically next to his, face flushing furiously.

"Oh, god," he heard her say, as she attempted to wriggle out, not noticing Fili's face turning red as she did so.

Ori, having crawled out of the rubble, could only watch them, his eyes flying from Ella to Fili and Fili to Ella.

Fili was immensely relieved when Gandalf aided Ella out, and he was free to scramble up and grab hold of his weapons.

Falling asleep hugging Ella was one thing.

Lying on the ground with Ella pressed on top of him in a confined, dark area was another matter entirely.

"Gandalf!" Kili yelled, suddenly, digging his way out from under the rubble.

Fili looked up. Goblins, hundreds of goblins, all swarming towards them, screeching, howling, screaming.

"There's too many!" Dwalin called out. "We can't fight them!"

"Only one thing will save us," Gandalf said, his brows furrowed. "Daylight! Come on! Here, on your feet!"

* * *

And they were running, running and running, through the tunnels, winding their way through the dark, until, finally, Ella saw a warm, yellow light before them.

Sunlight.

And then they were out of the mountains, out of the caves, scrambling down the mountainside, running and running until Gandalf finally deemed it safe enough and stumbled to a halt in a small clearing.

"Fili, Kili, Ella, that's thirteen," Gandalf murmured as he counted them, eyes only briefly taking in the fact that Ella was standing so close to Fili she was leaning into him, "and Bombur – that makes fourteen. Where's Bilbo? Where is our hobbit?"

No answer. Ella looked around frantically, gaze sweeping over the company.

"Where is our hobbit?" Gandalf demanded again, raising his voice.

"Curse the halfling! Now he's lost?" Dwalin had turned his gaze to the mountain, glaring up at it with more ferocity than usual.

"I thought he was with Dori!"

"Don't blame me!"

"Well, where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked, frowning, his face upset.

"I think I saw him slip away, when they first collared us," Nori offered.

"What happened exactly? Tell me!"

And then Thorin stepped forward, his face hard, his voice cold. "I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it! He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door! We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. He is long gone."

Ella didn't even know what she was doing.

The next thing she knew, she was standing in front of Thorin, a loud crack resounding in the air as Thorin put a hand to his face, to the red palm print she had left on his cheek.

"Don't you dare," she hissed, angrily, "don't you dare speak of him that way! He may miss his home but he's left it for you, hasn't he? He didn't sign up for trolls, or Orcs, or goblins – he signed up to be a burglar, to deal with a dragon, which is already as terrifying as it can possibly get. And you – you – he's lasted this long, hasn't he? I don't care if you're the bloody fucking King under the mountain, you cannot just – "

"Ella," Fili cut in, moving forward and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her back towards him. "Ella. Calm down. _Calm down_. It's okay," he said, as he pulled her nearer to him. "It's okay."

"Don't you – I haven't forgiven you yet – stupid, stupid dwarf, what were you thinking, when those goblins were whipping at us – I can't believe you – do you _know _how injured you could have been – "

"Ella," Ori said, softly, and she came to a stop, breathing in deeply, closing her eyes.

"We must move," Thorin said, sharply, a hand still to his face. "The hobbit is not coming back."

"Actually, he's here."

And Bilbo stepped out from behind a tree, hands in his waistcoat pockets.

"Bilbo Baggins!" A smile broke out over Gandalf's face. "I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!"

"Bilbo, we'd given you up!"

Fili looked up from Ella long enough to say: "How on earth did you get past the goblins?"

"How, indeed." Dwalin's voice, deep, wondering slightly.

Ella managed to smile at Bilbo from her position leaning on Fili, his face lighting up slightly at seeing her smile, as he paused, thinking how to answer. Bilbo. Bilbo was here. He wasn't leaving.

"Well, what does it matter?" Gandalf said after a short, awkward silence. "He's back!"

"It matters!" Thorin strode forward, giving the briefest of glances to Ella, before turning his eyes back to Bilbo. "I want to know."

Bilbo looked at him nervously.

"_Why_ did you come back?"

Bilbo looked at him for a long moment, swept his gaze over the company, his eyes seeking out each of the dwarfs.

"Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home." He looked at Thorin, looked right into his eyes. "And that's why I came back, cause you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."

And Ella couldn't help but smile, leaning her head against Fili's shoulder as he tightened his arm around her as they took in his words, hearing nothing but the sincerity in his voice.

Then the howls – loud, echoing howls, and they looked up to see Wargs running straight at them down the mountain.

Thorin's face was grim. "Out of the frying pan – "

"And into the fire," Gandalf finished. "Run. RUN!"


	12. Chapter 12

**So here it is, the ****last chapter of Ella's journey during 'An Unexpected Journey'! **

**Have added in some more jealous Ori as requested by Pergjithshme because I realised how Ori's jealousy is only mentioned here and there but never really expanded on! Poor Ori. I've got other plans for Ori, though, heh.**

**Anyway, school's starting again soon, so I won't have as much time to write and so it'll take longer for Ella's journey on 'The Desolation of Smaug'. **

**Okay, enough with this, here's the last chapter for you guys!**

* * *

Ella didn't believe she'd ever run so much in her entire life.

Running and running and running – down the mountain, away from the Wargs, darting through the trees. The sun, she knew, had still been up when they had first started running.

Now it was long past nightfall.

Fili had kept her in front of him, making sure she didn't stumble or fall, Bofur and Ori running on either side of her. She felt terrible – not just physically exhausted from all the running, but because the three of them were still watching out for her when they should be watching out for themselves first.

Yes, she really needed to learn how to defend herself properly.

Right after they got away from the Orc pack chasing them.

The Wargs, she knew, were catching up. She could hear their growls coming ever closer, could hear them panting, their feet thudding nearer and nearer.

And then, abruptly, they reached a large outcropping of land with a steep drop off the mountain on the other side.

_Oh god._

"Up into the trees, all of you!" Gandalf shouted, and immediately Fili was below her, boosting her up into the tree, Ori and Kili both scrambling up to lend her a hand. Once Fili was reassured she was high up enough, he leapt up into the tree himself, a branch just below Ella's. "Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!"

"Bilbo!" Ella screamed, as she saw the hobbit try to yank his sword out of a dead Warg, with more Wargs running towards him. Heart pounding, Ella saw him finally get his sword out of the dead Warg, and, catching sight of the many more Wargs approaching him, clambered into the nearest tree.

The Wargs rushed below them, yelping, growling, circling the trees, turning their darkened eyes up at the company, teeth bared and glinting white in the moonlight.

They stopped and turned as another Warg approached them, a white one, with a large Orc on its back; a large, pale Orc missing a hand.

"Azog." The disbelief in Thorin's voice, not very far away from her, was clear.

The Warg growled, and Azog the Defiler moved his hand down to stroke it, his eyes never leaving Thorin's as he began speaking in a strange, guttural, coarse language, one that Thorin obviously understood, for after a moment, his eyes had widened, and Ella could hear the pain and grief in his voice as he said: "It cannot be."

The Orc's face twisted into an evil, crooked smile as he spoke again in his guttural language.

In a moment, the Wargs were yelping, leaping up at the trees, scrabbling at the trunks and gnashing their teeth, breaking the branches as they tried to reach the members of the company perched high in their branches. The trees began to shake violently, Ella shrieking slightly as she held on for dear life, struggling not to let go.

The next thing, she knew, Fili had hauled himself up onto the branch next to her, was grabbing hold of her hand.

"Fili – "

"I need to know you're safe and that you stay safe," he interrupted her, not allowing her a chance to protest as the tree began to tilt over wildly just at that moment, the force of the Wargs jumping up at them uprooting the tree.

Fili's hand tightened around hers, and Ella found herself squeezing his hand.

"Jump!" he yelled out, as the tree they were on crashed into another, and they leapt into the next tree, Fili twisting about wildly to make sure Kili had landed safely, Ella glancing around for Bilbo and Bofur and Ori.

Kili managed to clamber onto the branch next to Fili, just as that same tree began to topple.

Ella was reminded of dominoes as they leapt from tree to tree, jumping off each tree as the Wargs began to uproot it and jumping onto the next.

And then the unthinkable happened.

She stumbled while jumping to the next tree – her feet slipping, sliding, trying to get a grip on the branches – let go of Fili's hand to try and grab hold of something, anything –

She landed, painfully, on the back of a Warg.

With a loud shriek, Ella grabbed hold of the Warg's fur as it stopped jumping at the tree and tried to throw her off its back, only vaguely aware of Fili being held back, shouting her name.

A loud howl, another Warg crashing into the Warg she was grabbing hold of; and she flew across the outcropping, landing right at the bottom of the tree by the edge, as the trees continued to fall, Fili leaping from one tree to the next, trying to get to her as quickly as possible.

But before he could reach her, her screams reached his ears.

A Warg had grabbed hold of her leg, jaws clamped tightly around it, growling, trying to drag her away, as the other Wargs approached. He could see her hands flying, scrambling for her dagger weakly, face twisted in pain, trying to think, to find it, to use it –

Fili didn't even think.

With a loud yell, he jumped down onto the Warg, his blades flashing, as Ella stabbed the Warg in the snout.

The Warg let out a long, loud howl and abruptly let go of her leg, staggering backwards as Fili struck it again and again, stabbing and slashing, his weapons glinting as he kept the ever increasing Wargs at bay, hearing the other dwarfs helping Ella up behind him.

He could hear her swearing, expletives pouring out of her mouth, as Bilbo and the others dragged her up, until he risked a glance to see her safely perched on one of the higher branches, her face scrunched up in pain, winding cloth that had been torn from her sleeves around the wound as much as she could.

Fili jumped up onto the lowest branch as soon as he had an opening, clambering up as far as he could go.

Bofur kept one hand on Ella's shoulder as she balanced precariously on the branch, her back against the trunk, the dwarf on the other side of the tree, steadying her as she tried to staunch the bleeding, tear tracks glittering on her face.

She had never, never felt anything so painful. Sharp, jagged teeth clamped over her, biting into her leg, sharp and hot, dark, animal eyes staring at her hungrily, growls emitting from the creature's mouth. The pain had overwhelmed her, not leaving any room for any sense, except for one single thought: _Kill it_.

Ella hadn't any idea how she had managed to grab hold of the dagger and stab the Warg in the snout; she was aware only of the pain, the overwhelming pain, taking over her senses, enveloping her.

Even now, she could feel herself slipping away, trying to bite her lips to prevent herself from screaming, from whimpering, tugging at the cloths she'd wrapped around her right calf.

"Ella. Ella, listen to me, listen to me, stay awake, don't leave me – "

It was Fili, Fili trying to clamber up to her as the Wargs neared the tree, as the pale Orc Azog let out a cold, cruel laugh, wrapping his warm hands around her own shaking, shivering pale ones, holding the cloth, tying it into a knot.

"It hurts," she managed to whimper. "It hurts, Fili, it hurts so fucking bad – "

"Shh, it's okay, I've got you – "

"You stupid Fili," she mumbled, "you could have killed yourself when you jumped down – "

"I'm much too important to be killed by a Warg," Fili told her, and watched as the briefest of smiles flickered over her face before she let out another whimper, her face contorting in pain. "It's okay, it's okay, Ella, I'm here, I've got you."

And even though they were perched on the very last tree, right on the edge of the outcropping with the Wargs surrounding them and a steep drop on the other side, Ella felt slightly comforted.

Safe.

And then her head spun and she nearly slipped from the branch again, held up only by Bofur's hand still on her shoulder and Fili's hands around hers, pulling at the cloth around her wound still.

She was vaguely aware of something red and hot and orange being thrown down to the dwarfs, to the Wargs on the ground, something on fire – flaming pinecones? – flickering yellow and orange, landing in the middle of the Wargs, causing them to leap back and howl as the fire began to spread among them, flames licking.

More orange, more yellow, more red, more searing heat; Ella could see it in a midst of blackness, fading it and out, aware of Fili's face in front of hers, a familiar, comforting voice saying that she would be okay, that she would be all right.

And then, suddenly, what sounded like cheers; the yelping of the Wargs fading, the faintest flickers of a relieved smile breaking over Fili's face, growing ever more blurry in front of her despite her glasses.

She felt his hands tighten around hers slightly.

And the look on his face turn to panic as the tree began to tilt over.

She was vaguely aware of him shouting something – was it her name? – before the tree uprooted, bending over, and over, until it stopped, nearly horizontal, to balance over the edge.

* * *

Ori knew, perched on the edge of the branch near the top of the tree as he was, that he had much more important things to worry about than Ella, her face tight with pain, clutching at her leg, Fiii's face close to hers, talking to her, keeping her awake and alive.

But instead, even as the tree began to topple, he could only feel sorrow, an unimaginable sadness, that he hadn't talked to her more, hadn't gotten to know her more, that he wasn't the one sitting across her, trying to make her smile across the pain, taking care of her.

He'd felt something in him ache when she had clung onto Fili so desperately in the goblin tunnels, trying not to be too much of a burden on him as she slashed and stabbed, flung into a type of situation she had probably never imagined before.

He'd felt the same ache when they had been on the bridge skidding down the walls of the cavern, glancing slightly over at her to find her tightly wrapped in Fili's embrace. Even crashing down such a massive height, panicking for his life, he could only think that he wanted it to be him Ella wrapped her arms around.

And then he'd felt pain, a massive, heart-aching pain, when they'd finally landed and Ella had fallen on top of him, pressed so close together by the weight of the bridge.

And when she'd fallen from the tree, had gotten bitten by the Warg - he wanted to jump down, help her, but what good was his slingshot against a bloodthirsty Warg? He'd seen what little effect the slingshot had had on them, when they'd been running away the first time.

He'd have given anything to be a real, proper warrior at that moment, as Fili jumped down without a second thought, leaping and slashing at the Wargs, nearly getting himself killed as he defended Ella, buying her time for the other dwarfs to haul her up.

He knew it was stupid, irrational.

But he wanted to see that smile, that smile that seemed to light up her whole face, that smile that seemed to only ever be aimed at Fili; he wanted to see her smile like that at him.

* * *

When the tree first began to tilt over, both Bofur and Fili grabbed hold of Ella, scrambling to keep their grip as they hauled her up onto the trunk between them, her face turning pale, her eyelids fluttering as she tried to stay awake.

"Ella," Fili managed to say, inching closer, as much as he dared to, "can you hear me?"

"No," she groaned. "Don't shout."

He nearly felt himself smile, before panic overtook him. "I'm not shouting."

"Yes, you are," she mumbled.

They had let go of her wound as they scrambled up onto the trunk, and Fili could see the blood soaking the cloth, staining it red. Hurriedly, as much as he could, he tried to rewrap the cloth around her leg again.

And then he was suddenly aware of a figure rising from the tree, getting to his feet, walking down the leaning trunk, and suddenly hurtling through the outcropping, through the flames, at the pale Orc astride a white Warg.

Fili could only watch, his face draining, as Thorin ran towards the white Warg only for it to leap up at him, smashing his uncle to the ground. And up and again; and again smashed into the ground, this time by Azog, and Fili didn't know where to look, at his uncle or at the half-unconscious girl still fighting to hold on, to stay awake.

"Thorin!" Fili could hear the panic, the fear in Dwalin's voice, his anger at his helplessness, as the Warg clamped Thorin in his jaws – his whole body, as Thorin hit it in the head only to be flung away in the Warg's rage.

"Go, lad, go!" he heard Bofur say, and turned to see the older dwarf gesture for him, his face white, to go and help Thorin if he could. "You can help him better than I can – I'll hold onto the lass. Go!"

But before he could scramble to his feet, he saw another Orc approach Thorin's unmoving body, sword raised – and then Bilbo leaping in front of him, stabbing the Orc, killing it, trying to defend Thorin's body, keeping the Wargs and Orcs away.

With one last look at Ella, Bofur holding up her head, talking, trying to get her to stay awake, Fili managed to clamber out of the tree and thrust himself into the fray of Wargs and Orcs.

* * *

Feathers.

Large, soft, smooth feathers, beneath her, underneath her fingers, hands hurriedly working on retying the cloth around her wound. Gliding, the rush of wind, a soft yellow light through her eyelids. When had that happened? She could only remember darkness, shrieks, fierce yellow and orange and red flames, Fili's face disappearing from her vision, a voice prodding her awake, a short drop through the air with warm arms around her. She was vaguely aware of forcing her eyes to keep open, to bite her lip at the pain in her leg.

"Fili?" she managed to whisper.

"No, lass, it's me, Bofur," said a familiar voice, "don't fall asleep on me yet."

She blinked, tried to sit up.

The wound stung, painfully, biting, hot, but it felt better, just slightly better, and she could feel Bofur's hands behind her, supporting her as she tried to get into an upright position.

"Where are we?"

"On a giant eagle, lass. Friends of Gandalf's."

"Now I know I woke up from that stream into a dream," she mumbled. "Giant eagles flying me around."

She felt the strange, hysterical urge to laugh.

"Never knew eagles could be so comfortable," Bofur said, in an odd, falsely cheerful voice.

Ella winced and clutched at her leg.

"Between you and Thorin, I think Fili's head might end up spinning round and round his neck without stopping," said Bofur, once he was sure Ella was propped upright safely.

"Thorin?" she said, weakly. "What happened to Thorin?"

Bofur pointed.

She saw the large dwarf, unconscious, hanging from a giant eagle's talons.

"What happened?"

"Tried to take on Azog."

She saw Fili on an eagle right behind Thorin, Kili balanced behind him, getting a mouthful of blond hair in his mouth when Fili twisted around to look for Ella.

His face broke into a smile when he saw her sitting up, though leaning weakly against Bofur.

Partially relieved, he turned back to watch his uncle again, with worried eyes.

* * *

"Go, just go."

Bofur had tried to jump down with Ella in his arms onto the small rocky outcropping that the other dwarfs were leaping onto – but Ella, however, not being exactly very small or light despite shrinking in size, had proved to be heavier than he had imagined, causing him to stumble and her to land on her already injured leg. She had collapsed on the ground, wincing, Bofur looking over her, glancing from her to Thorin worriedly, until she waved him off. She knew how important Thorin was to all the dwarfs.

Bofur gave her a grateful smile and ran off to where the other dwarfs were gathered.

Ella knew Thorin would live. She didn't know how – she simply _knew _– but she did know, and it was no surprise to her when he grunted and got to his feet, raising his voice at Bilbo before finally pulling the bewildered hobbit into a hug.

It reminded her, slightly, of the insults she and Jerelee would throw at each other before pulling each other into a hug, of the days she and Delilah and Alison would laze around, insulting and making fun at each other until they burst into laughter.

Even in her dazed state, Ella couldn't help but smile.

"Ella!"

And there was Fili, that stupid, _stupid _blond dwarf, dashing over to her, crouching next to her, taking her hand in his. "Are you all right?"

"No," she said. "I haven't forgiven you yet." And she managed to drag herself upright into a proper sitting position, so that Fili was on her right, by her wounded leg, facing her completely.

His brow furrowed. "Forgiven me?"

"You stupid, _stupid_ bloody dwarf," she managed to say. "What were you doing – in the tunnel with the whips – and then just now when I fell down off the tree – and then trying to help me when you could've fallen off the damn tree – "

"What, don't I get a thank you?"

"Not when you're nearly killing yourself!"

"You were going to die!"

"I had it sorted!"

"No, you didn't - "

"I would've figured something out – "

"I did what I had to do – "

"No, you didn't, you didn't have to do any of that – "

"Do you think I could have ever let anything happen to you?"

And then Fili's hands were on her shoulders, and she had grabbed the front of his coat, and he pulled her to him and captured her lips with his own.

* * *

Ella had never had much experience with boys. Hell, she'd never even dated anyone before. She'd always imagined she'd end up with a guy she'd known since forever, with both of them learning to care for each other as the years passed. Or something like that. And that they'd go out often, getting used to each other and knowing even more about each other, or something, before actually, well, kissing.

But she figured, sitting on the cold hard ground with a wounded leg on the top of a narrow rocky outcropping was not the worst place to have her first kiss, and especially not with a dwarf she had only really known for a while when it felt like she had known him forever.

Fili only pulled her nearer to him as she yanked him closer to her, a whirlwind of emotions rushing through his head, his lips never leaving hers, only one word repeating in his mind: _Ella_.

They were completely oblivious to the semi-circle of dwarfs around them, along with a slightly smiling Bilbo Baggins and a chuckling Gandalf.

Ori's hand tightened around his book that had somehow survived the goblins, his other hand clenched into a fist.

He felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder, felt it squeeze him comfortingly.

He turned to see Dori, Nori just behind him, sad smiles on their faces.

"I never had a chance, did I?" Ori asked them, feeling as if he were years younger, feeling even more like their youngest brother, like the little kid, the last to grow up, always looking to his older brothers for comfort, for advice, for reassurance and help.

"No," said Dori, his voice soft. "No, I don't think you did."

Ori shut his eyes, looked away, relaxed his hand.

Fili and Ella had finally parted, Fili still crouched next to her, Ella nearly completely forgetting about the raging pain in her leg, her hands still on his coat, his hands on her shoulders.

They rested their foreheads against each other's, looking at each other through the glass in front of Ella's eyes.

"The braids on your moustache are very annoying," she murmured, moving her arms to wrap around his neck as he lowered his hands to her waist.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it soon enough."

And this time, it was her lips that sought his.

* * *

Oin had treated her wound, chattering non-stop as he did so, trying to entertain her and educate her, not seeing her turn paler and paler, biting her lip every once in while, scolding her for not coming to him the moment they had landed.

He'd only stopped talking after her face had turned green when she'd glanced down at her wound, turning to bury her face in Fili's shoulder, Thorin's oldest nephew never leaving her side, Oin fixing up the wound as best as he could before declaring himself done. Ella had been relieved to hear that it hadn't needed stitches nor anything similar – the wound, he reassured her, was deep, but not that deep. The monster's jaws hadn't gone in very deep, something she was extremely grateful for, remembering the one instance her sister, her Emma, had hurt herself so badly that she'd needed stitches to fix up the wound, remembering how she'd screamed in pain after waking up from the anaesthetic.

"Come on, I want to show you something."

Fili had reappeared at her side after leaving her for a short moment, bending down to wrap one hand around her waist and draping her hand around his shoulder as he managed to lift her up, supporting her to the edge of the rock.

"There," he said, proudly, pointing into the distance as he lowered her onto the ground, settling himself next to her. "The Lonely Mountain."

Raising her eyes, ignoring the pain that had exploded in her leg from hobbling over, Ella saw a single, solitary peak in the distance on the horizon.

"Your home," she said. "And your kingdom, one day."

"Mmm." Fili lifted a hand, ran it through her now non-existent braids. "I told you not to mess up the braids unless you were dead."

"Well, thank you, Fili, I know I had plenty of time to take care of them."

"I suppose you're forgiven, with that nasty bite on your leg," he said, chuckling, using his hand to turn her head to face him, making her drag her eyes away from the Lonely Mountain.

And he pressed his lips to hers again, and there they stayed, unaware of Ori and Bofur behind them, Bofur smiling as he puffed on his pipe, Ori forcing himself to look away, hands clenched, as they finally broke apart and Ella rested her head on Fili's shoulder, him taking her hands in his.


	13. Chapter 13

It had taken little effort to convince the younger hobbits to all return home once Bilbo had mentioned how the eagles had brought them to the Carrock.

Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam, however, had taken a lot more convincing, until Bilbo had finally given up.

Frodo, of course, stayed with him, so it hadn't been too much of an issue; Merry and Pippin, however, had had to plead with their parents to let them stay longer, while Sam had asked his father, Bilbo's loyal gardener for years, who had agreed readily, as long as Sam wouldn't be too much of a burden.

In the end, it had been agreed that the three hobbits would stay the night with Frodo and Bilbo.

Frodo had been absolutely ecstatic, flying around the hobbit hole and making up another few beds while Bilbo got supper ready. They'd all eaten rather cheerfully, Merry and Pippin shoving down mouthful after mouthful of food, until they'd all finally finished up and washed and dried the dishes, returning to the group of chairs by the roaring fireplace.

Bilbo shut his eyes for a moment, remembering Ella, remembering the rest of the company, of that journey that had taught him so much.

The unexpected journey that he would never, ever forget.

* * *

"The eagles have allowed us to rest here for the night," Gandalf said to Thorin, who nodded and immediately barked out orders for the dwarfs to set up camp with whatever they had left, for Oin and Gloin to start a fire, for Bombur to start making dinner.

His eyes never left Fili and Ella, sitting at the edge of the rock, Fili leaning back on his arms, Ella's head on his shoulder as they murmured, one of them making the other laugh every so often.

"He's happy with her," Gandalf said, following his line of vision. "And she with him."

"They hardly know each other."

"They've obviously made a connection."

"He's too young."

Gandalf scoffed at this.

"He might put himself at risk protecting her."

"He already puts his life on the line for you and for his brother, every day," said Gandalf. "And I somehow doubt Miss Aidan is willing to let him protect her at his own risk. You must have heard their conversation, as did everyone else."

Thorin only grunted, his eyes still never leaving them. He had not been happy to have Ella along, despite the fact that he rather liked the young human girl. He hadn't been very happy to have Bilbo along either, but the hobbit had proved himself useful, what with the trolls, and had risked his own life to save Thorin.

The only thing Ella Aidan had done, as far as Thorin was concerned, was take Fili's attention away from the quest. He could not deny that she was a rather nice girl, someone easy to get along with, but the quest – she could not lead the company away from the quest.

"This might be good for him," Gandalf said, gently.

"This might also not be good for the quest."

"They are happy. Let them be happy together."

"Ella Aidan has yet to prove her worth."

Shaking his head, Gandalf turned away.

* * *

"Dinner!" came Bofur's voice, across the Carrock, and Ella lifted her head slightly from Fili's shoulder to glance up interestedly.

"I'll get you some," the blond dwarf said, laughing, brushing his lips across her cheek as he got to his feet, unaware of the fact that Ella was blushing furiously as he did so. "Oh, no, Bombur's already finished his first helping and he's back for a second serving…"

"Don't let him finish everything!"

Ella smiled as Fili made his way over to where the other dwarfs were gathered, Kili suddenly joining him halfway, a huge grin across his face as he elbowed his elder brother.

"Miss Aidan."

Thorin stepped out from behind her, arms behind his back, dark eyes boring into hers.

"Thorin." Ella was vaguely aware of the fact that her face was heating up even more as he moved to stand directly in front of her. She remembered how she had slapped him furiously earlier that day in her anger.

_Oh god_.

"You know that you were brought along on this quest only because of these dreams that you were having in Rivendell. I have no other reason for bringing you along."

"Yes."

Ella was staring down at the ground, wondering how she'd never realised how fascinating rocks were before.

"I need you to understand something. With this new understanding between yourself and Fili – " At this Ella's eyes flickered slightly over to the blond dwarf, who was now trapped in a headlock by Dwalin " – he must not be distracted from the quest in any way. You know he is heir to the throne of Erebor. He must never forget the purpose of this quest. Of this journey."

Ella could only blink at him.

"You – you think I would distract him away from the purpose of your quest?" She stared at him. "Thorin, I wouldn't – I _know _how important this quest is to you, to all of you, and especially to you and Fili and Kili and Balin – I would never want to distract Fili from it – I don't think I could even distract him – "

"I understand," he interrupted, "that you would not. However, in your current condition, I believe that his focus would be more on you rather than the quest."

And then Ella finally understood what he was trying to say.

_He's saying I'm a burden_.

"I – " she began, then fell silent, biting her lip.

"I merely want you to keep this in mind," said Thorin. "I do not want you to draw his attention away from the quest more than is necessary."

Without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving Ella staring after him, her mind a whirlwind of emotions.

Fili. Fili, wonderful Fili. She'd gotten the shock of her life when she'd realised she was in another world, but had learnt to adapt, to care for the dwarfs, had wanted to go on the quest with them. A quest which she had thought would be important for her – a quest that would, possibly, help her figure out what she could do with her new life in this world.

She hadn't expected to fall hard for a protective blond dwarf with a charming smile. Or for that blond dwarf to care for her to the point that he would put her before himself, every single time, at every sign of danger.

Panic hit her then, sudden and hard and overwhelming. The dwarfs had had little female interaction on this quest – and according to some of the stories they told her of their lives in the Blue Mountains, there were very few dwarfish women as well. What if – what if Fili cared for her simply because there were few other females around? What if his affection for her – no matter how real he thought it was – was simply built on the fact that she was around him every day, and that once they'd gotten back to the real world, to the rest of society, he'd find someone else he realised he truly cared for instead?

_No._ Ella squeezed her eyes shut, tried to breathe properly. This was stupid. She had much more important things to worry about – her leg, for example, and the fact that Orcs were hunting them, _and _the fact that their time to get to the Lonely Mountain was running out, and of course the fact that Thorin had only spoken to her just a moment ago to make sure she didn't distract Fili in any way.

"Are you okay?" Fili was by her side again, placing the bowls on the ground, reaching out a hand to grasp hers. "Ella?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She managed a weak smile, squeezed his hand slightly before moving to pick up the bowl.

"I saw Thorin talking to you," he said, pulling her so that she was leaning against him again. "What did he say?"

He saw her blush furiously, shake her head.

"Ella – "

She shook her head, again, furiously.

He paused for a moment; put his bowl down, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, trapping her arms within his own, pulled her so that her back was against his chest, his head on her shoulder, and he could feel her stiffen slightly, feel her heart rate increase rapidly.

"Ella," he repeated, into her ear, softly this time, slowly.

"I hate you," she muttered, placing down her own bowl and attempting to wriggle out of his grasp.

"_Ella_." And he was hugging her tighter, saying her name into her ear softly, until she finally gave up and relaxed, turning her head slightly so that she was facing him.

He could feel her breath along his jawline, and this time it was him who stiffened slightly, realising how close he had pulled her to him.

"He wanted me to make sure you that you wouldn't be distracted from the quest," she said, leaning back into him, wincing as she stretched out her right leg slowly. "Because – with my injury – he thought you might not be as focussed on the quest – and that I told him that I would never ever distract you – and – that – I wouldn't be able to distract you from it anyway – "

"Wait, wait, what?" Fili readjusted himself slightly. He knew that he should probably have been more concerned about the fact that Thorin thought he would be distracted from the quest, but he could only focus on Ella's second sentence. "He thought that you would – would be a burden, or something?"

"He is right."

"You're _not _a burden – "

"Don't be an idiot, Fili."

Fili was still trying to wrap his mind around the rest of the things Ella had said. "What do you mean, you wouldn't be able to distract me from the quest?"

At that, Ella flushed again, a bright red.

"Did I say that? I didn't say that. I didn't say that at all."

"Ella." Fili relaxed his grip around her, found her hands instead, splayed her long brown fingers in his palms. "You know," he chuckled, "you already making me forget, half the time, why I wanted to come on this quest. Why I am on this quest."

He noticed she had stiffened again.

"But you always remind me of why I'm here as well," he said. "Because I look at you, and you make me think of home, and happiness, and where so many find beauty in jewels and coins and gold, you've made me realise that beauty isn't always in precious metals or jewels." He held her hands in his, gently. "You remind me of what is right in this world."

Ella let out a shaky laugh.

"You make me sound like some kind of angel when I have a temper to rival maybe even Thorin's, when I'm careless and clumsy and keep getting injured and – "

"Angels," Fili said, "are perfect in their own way."

* * *

Nori, despite what the majority of dwarfs thought, actually cared very much for his younger brother, though he didn't always show it.

He had noticed that ever since they had started dinner, Ori hadn't been able to tear his eyes away from where Fili and Ella were sitting near the edge of the rock. Ella was leaning against Fili, her injured leg extended in front of her, and Fili had arranged them in such a way that he had to keep his arm around Ella in order for him to eat his dinner.

Nori had seen Ori's hands tremble slightly as he shoved a spoonful of meat into his mouth.

"Ori." He leaned forward and prodded the younger dwarf with his spoon.

With a jerk, Ori sat up straight and turned to face Nori. "Yes?"

"You're staring at them."

He saw Ori drop his spoon into his bowl nervously, clear his throat. "Staring at who?"

"_Ori_."

Ori looked at him for a long moment; then, with a sigh, he moved over to sit with his older brother. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Anyone with half a brain can see it."

"It's just – " Ori paused, swallowed. "She's wonderful, you know? Really, really wonderful. She's funny. And she's brave, she tries not to let her fear show. And she doesn't want to depend on people – she wants to be able to take care of herself even though someone else would gladly put his life on the line for her. And she's just – she's just amazing."

"She has a terrible temper," Nori said, and Ori smiled faintly, remembering one day when Kili had annoyed her so much and they'd ended up having a shouting match, with Ella promptly moving to the front to walk with Bofur and Kili joined Fili at the back, glowering, until Fili had made them sit next to each other and apologise to each other.

"And she's violent," added Nori thoughtfully, recalling one night when she'd punched him on the arm, an extremely hard punch for a small human girl, making his arm still ache the next morning. And, of course, when she had slapped Thorin.

"Everyone has their imperfections," Ori said, and he turned his gaze to Fili and Ella again, where they were having what seemed like a playful argument, Ella repeating over and over that her hair was dirty and disgusting and he was in no way allowed to touch it, Fili insisting that he didn't care how much dirt she had in her hair because he wanted to braid it.

"C'mon, lad." Nori clapped him on the shoulder. "There are enough dwarfish lasses back in the Blue Mountains for you; and if you don't fancy any of them, our journey's far from over."

"Don't you see, Nori?" The young dwarf's voice was pleading. "I'm not much of a warrior, not like all of you. Nobody would want someone like me, not when there are – not when there are Fili, and Kili, and Dwalin, and you and everyone else – "

"Ori."

There was something in the older dwarf's voice that made Ori fall silent.

"You will find someone." Nori gathered up the empty dishware, managed a smile for his younger brother. "I promise."

* * *

"We've no bedrolls or anything, so we'll have to make do with our coats and cloaks."

Groans of disappointment was echoed around the rock, with a loud sigh from Bilbo, who was discovering that no matter how uncomfortable sleeping in a bedroll on the ground was, sleeping without a bedroll on hard rocky ground was a million times worse.

Fili dragged Ella gently over to him, as he always had, but instead of her leaning her back against his chest, he turned her so that she was facing him.

"Your coat is hardly big enough for both of us," said Ella.

"Hey!" Fili looked offended, pointed at his cloak and Ella's laid out on the ground. "It's not just the coat!"

He was relieved to hear her laugh.

"How's your leg?" he asked, quietly, when they'd finally found a comfortable position, Fili with his arm on the ground along Ella's shoulders, her leaning into him slightly, both of them looking up at the sky above them.

"Better," Ella admitted. "Oin looked at it again after dinner and I have absolutely no idea what he did, but it's feeling even better now."

"Good," Fili said. "Because we're starting off tomorrow."

"I'm not sure how fast I can keep up."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm carrying you."

"_What_?"

"Well, you obviously still have some trouble walking, even though you try and pretend you don't."  
"I can walk perfectly fine – "

"No, you can't. And even if you could, I'd still carry you anyway."

"I'd probably break your arms."

"Give me some credit, I'm a pretty strong dwarf."

"Is this just a chance for you to carry a girl in your arms or something?"

"Now you've just seen through my brilliant plan."

"Idiot," Ella said, rolling her eyes, turning to face him, and her breath caught when she realised he was already looking at her, smiling.

* * *

Ella was curled up with her head atop Fili's chest when she first whimpered.

And then she began to toss, rolling from left to right and back again.

"Ella?" Fili blinked himself awake, eyes widening as she twisted where she lay, eyes clenched tightly shut, her hands gripping onto the fabric of his clothes. "Ella!"

And then she was crying, tears running down her face, murmuring something in her sleep, her breathing growing harsher as she tossed and turned.

"Ella, Ella, Ella." Fili felt panic rising in him, panic and concern and fear, as he struggled to sit up, to prop her upright. He wrapped his arms around her as she let out another whimper, as she twisted some more. "Ella, c'mon, it's all right, I'm here, I'm right here – "

And then her eyes snapped open, large and wild and out of focus.

"Fili?" she managed to whisper, clutching at him.

"Yeah, it's me, I'm right here – "

He was abruptly cut off as she flung her arms around his neck, her head buried in his shoulder, her body still wracking with sobs.

"It was terrible," Ella whispered, once Fili had finally calmed her down, murmuring into her ear and rocking her in his arms. She looked so frightened, so pale.

Fili didn't think he'd ever been so upset about not being able to protect her.

"I saw – I saw Jerelee." She took a deep breath in, grasping at his hands, before continuing. "She was dead, and it was all dark, and she was in pain, and she was screaming, screaming so badly."

Jerelee. How long had it been since she thought properly of Jerelee? Or Emma, for that metter. And Addy and Tiffany and Delilah and Alison and the twins and her parents. Too long. Far, far too long.

Fili didn't say anything, just held her in his arms.

"And woods, and fighting, and hurt and pain and running and running and Orcs and weapons and pain, so much pain."

His hands tightened around her.

"And I saw a town." Her voice was muffled as she buried her face deeper into his shoulder. "A town, and guards and weapons and a mountain, and Orcs and screams and fighting, and fire, hot, raging fire, and death, and destruction."

She takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"A dragon, a red-gold dragon, flying in the air."


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry it took so long for me to upload this! First week of school's been absolutely crazy. Anyway, here it is! (reviews would be nice so I know what you think HAHA)**

* * *

She'd begun to paint, now.

Nearly all of Emma's clothes were completely covered and splattered with paint. She was skipping school every other day, her mother only staring at her blankly when she realised that her youngest daughter – now her only daughter – was at home instead of in the classroom. And her father – he'd thrown into his work with more vigour than ever before, trying to drown himself in it.

Emma stepped back from the canvas, examined her work.

It was Ella – of course it was Ella – dancing, with a blond guy with his moustache in braids. The guy, in Emma's opinion, looked ridiculous – he was painted with lots of layers of clothes and weapons and whatnot, and the braids, oh god, the braids – but it was somehow right.

Yes.

It was somehow right.

She bit her lip as she remembered Jerelee. Jerelee, cheerful Jerelee, who had never been good with grief or sadness. Emma, at least, had had her art to help her through the pain that had overshadowed her when thinking of Ella; Jerelee had only had her studies, had thrown herself into them with renewed vigour, every day seeing the ghost of her friend who had always ever been a sister to her. Jerelee's parents had had no idea how to console their only child; and often, Jerelee would come over to visit Emma, Emma working on one artpiece or another while Jerelee studied, and studied, and studied.

And then that terrible day, nearly two weeks ago, when she'd gotten the news that Jerelee had died in a car accident – the older girl had been reading her history notes while crossing the road, and the driver had slammed on the accelerator instead of the brakes – and she was gone.

Gone.

Just like Ella.

* * *

The next few days, Fili didn't wander away from Ella more than was necessary.

He carried her everywhere, every day, as they made their way through the woods, constantly on the look-out for Orcs. Dwalin and Kili took turns helping him carry her, but even then Fili stayed beside her, making sure she was all right, talking to her, grinning at her, making her smile.

Ella supposed she should be grateful for everything that the company, and Fili most of all, was doing for her. He'd make her smile, make her laugh, telling her silly stories, asking her how on earth her glasses had survived everything she'd been through, getting her to stretch out a hand and whack him on his arm or on the back of his head every once in a while.

She'd never had anyone care so much for her. Never. Not even Emma, not even her parents, not even Jerelee or Bella or Beatrix or Delilah or Alison. She felt – she felt guilty, really, knowing that he was doing so much, much too much, for her.

But then he would pop up next to her and make her smile, and she'd laugh and forget about how much he was doing for her and her guilt that he was doing so much for her while she was doing nothing.

Every night, they fell asleep together, Ella's head on his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her.

And every night, he would sit up the moment she began thrashing around, would pull her closer and rock her as she began to whimper.

Bofur was one of the first to notice, and whenever Fili woke her during one of her more severe nightmares, he'd make his way over to them, helped Fili make her laugh shakily before she fell back asleep.

Next was Kili, and Fili was grateful for his younger brother as he proclaimed how Ella had broken his heart by choosing his older brother over him, winking at her and making her blush every time, bringing her out of her nightmares.

Even Bilbo had taken to trotting alongside whichever dwarf was carrying her, telling her of hobbits in general, of all the books he'd read, whatever he could think of, sometimes telling her stories until she'd fallen asleep with a peaceful smile on her face.

And so it went, with whichever dwarf on watch at the moment taking a while to make sure she was all right, to make her smile, before returning to their duty, everyone trying to make her smile. It was heartwarming, that was all Fili could say.

But he couldn't help but notice that Ori avoided him as much as possible.

He'd pondered on it for a while, maybe when Ella was too tired to hold a conversation with him or when someone else claimed her attention. Every time he tried to strike a conversation up with the younger dwarf, Ori would mumble something before moving away.

It took him a while to remember how Ori had been before Fili had started to take up almost all of her attention.

And he remembered, remembered how Ori had looked at her so hopefully when lending her his cloak, asking her whether she was all right after the trolls, handing her a clean cloth when she'd broken down crying after Radagast had appeared, asking after her at Rivendell, always looking back at her to make sure she was okay.

Fili felt guilt welling up inside of him.

But, he told himself, it wasn't his fault. And it wasn't Ori's fault. And it certainly wasn't Ella's fault.

Ella.

He felt something build up inside of him whenever he thought of her, whenever he remembered how he'd been so angry and so annoyed and yet so completely head over heels for her at the top of the Carrock, pulling her lips to his (which he regretted immediately, because was he really that sure she felt the same way about him?) and her yanking him closer to her after she'd gotten over the initial shock.

It was happy and joyful and bubbly, that feeling.

He wasn't quite sure what it is.

* * *

Fili supposed he was grateful Ella was half-asleep when the Orcs finally caught up with them.

He thought it would be much safer to not have her realise that Thorin had sent Bilbo off alone to find out where the Orcs were. She would, he thought, probably have argued vehemently against it, saying that it was far too dangerous, until Bilbo agreed to it. She would, however, probably have still been extremely upset about it – and Fili didn't like to see her upset.

Another reason was that when she was asleep on his back, she seemed far more peaceful and didn't seem to be plagued by nightmares.

Yes. He liked the fact that she was asleep while he was carrying him, though she didn't like it at all, insisting that she probably just added more weight while she was asleep. Hell, he'd probably carry her around everywhere if it were possible.

"How close is the pack?" Thorin's voice was demanding, and Fili snapped his head up to realise that Bilbo had returned.

"Too close," was the hobbit's reply. "A couple of leagues, no more. But that's not the worst of it."

"Have the Wargs picked up our scent?" It was Dwalin, striding forwards.

"Not yet, but they will. We have another problem."

"Did they see you?" asked Gandalf, suddenly, and the whole company turned to face him, saw his face grow serious. "They saw you."

"No, that's not it," said Bilbo, shaking his head.

"What did I tell you?" Gandalf said, mood changing abruptly, a smile breaking over his face. "Quiet as a mouse, excellent burglar material!"

"Will you _just _listen?" Bilbo demanded, sounding exasperated, as the dwarfs began chattering, praising Bilbo – which, of course, he didn't really mind, but not at that particular moment. "I'm trying to tell you, there is something else out there!"

Silence fell amongst the company, the dwarfs exchanging worried looks.

"What form did it take?" Gandalf asked, his voice growing serious once more. "Like a bear?"

"Ye – yes," said Bilbo, looking at him questioningly. "But bigger, much bigger."

"You knew about this beast?" Bofur asked, stepping forward, eyes staring at Gandalf accusingly.

"I say we double back," he said to the others when Gandalf gave him no answer, turning away.

"And be run down by a pack of Orcs?" Thorin snapped back.

And again the dwarfs began murmuring amongst themselves, their voices growing louder.

"What d'you think?" Kili muttered to his older brother.

"I say we continue," Fili said. _We can't keep going back and forth, especially not with Ella like this._

"There is a house," said Gandalf, turning to face the company, cutting through their chatter, "not far from here, where we might take refuge."

"Whose house?" Thorin asked, darkly, remembering when Gandalf had brought them to Rivendell, to the elves. "Are they friend or foe?"

"Neither." Gandalf gave him a long, slow look. "He will help us, or he will kill us."

The entire company looked up at the wizard solemnly.

"What choice do we have?" said Thorin, finally, as a loud howl sounded.

"None."

* * *

And off they were, running again.

Ella had woken up to find herself still on Fili's back, the blond dwarf's feet never stopping. They hadn't stopped for a rest that previous night, had run all through the night until the sun had broken out over the horizon, until they were rushing out of the forest and across vast plains and back into forests, the Orcs coming every closer.

She decided it would probably be best to keep her mouth shut and hang onto Fili as tightly as she could without strangling him.

And so they ran, Gandalf leading the way, Ella wincing as the increased speed made her wound sting even more.

She suddenly realised, to her amusement, that Bombur was running past all of them, headed straight for the doorway in the wall – a doorway that Fili passed through only moments later, to reveal a huge garden with bees buzzing around, the sort of garden she probably could have wandered about in for hours if it weren't for the bees.

The dwarfs were slamming on the door, hammering it.

"Open the door!" she heard Gandalf call out, and Thorin was beside them in an instant, yelling: "Quickly!"

Hurrying to the massive wooden door before them, he unlatched it and yanked it open, the company all spilling inside just as the monstrous bear reached them, roaring as he slammed his head through the small opening.

"C'mon lads!" Dwalin shouted, and with one last shove, the door slammed shut on the bear and the dwarves latched it shut.

Slowly, at Ella's insistence, Fili lowered her to the ground, his eyes darting around the huge house with its stacks of hay on the ground and the huge wooden furniture.

"What is that?" Ori asked, tiredly, turning to the Gandalf, and the wizard opened his mouth, about to answer, when a voice cut in:

"Who are you?"

The dwarfs' spun around in an instant, drawing their weapons out, eyes searching the room for the voice, Fili already stepping in front of Ella with his swords in his hands.

The voice was shaky, but sounded determined, and it was most definitely a _girl's_ voice.

"I know that voice," Ella mumbled. Yes, she knew that voice. She was sure she did. And she could sense the fear in it. Placing a hand on Fili's shoulder, she smiled at him reassuringly before hobbling forward, painfully, aware that Fili was behind her.

"I'm going to repeat this one last time," said the girl's voice, coming at once from everywhere and nowhere. "Who are you?"

"We mean no harm," Ella said, hurriedly, before any of the company could say anything, and she could hear a sharp intake of breath.

And then a figure, a girl with pale, nearly white skin, choppy dark hair and brown eyes, dropped down from the rafters on the ceiling in front of Ella.

Ella stared at the girl in disbelief, as the girl stared at her, the sword in her hand dropping to the floor as their eyes met.

"Ella?"

"Jerelee?"

* * *

Ella flung herself on the girl and threw her arms around her just as the girl did the same, the two laughing as they crumpled to the floor, the tears sliding down their faces as their arms tightened around each other.

"I can't believe this," Ella was saying into Jerelee's shoulder, her voice coming out in sobs. "What are you doing here? What happened to you?"

"What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here?"

"I met up with this lot after I – " Ella swallowed " – I drowned."

Jerelee looked up at her, her arms still around Ella's shoulders, her eyes dark with sadness.

"They miss you a lot," she said.

Ella had to swallow again.

"I got hit by a car," Jerelee continued, seeing the tears spill down from Ella's face, knowing this was the best way with her friend – to keep prattling on, not to draw so much attention to the fact that she was crying. "Was mugging history and walking across this road – you _know _the amount of readings we got on World War II in Asia? I swear, it would have taken me like ten years to finish them all – when this car came out of nowhere and BOOM! It was lights out for me."

She was grinning now, grinning at Ella widely.

"I always knew mugging would kill you one day," said Ella, and suddenly they were giggling and laughing and crying all at the same time.

And then a throat cleared behind her.

Gandalf.

"Oh – yes." Ella pulled back slowly away from Jerelee, looking slightly flushed. "This is the company of Thorin Oakenshield, just give me a minute, I'll introduce you – "

And then Fili was beside her as she tried to get up, one hand around her shoulder, supporting her as she rested painfully on her injured leg.

"You're injured!"

Jerelee scrambled to her feet, crouched down by Ella's calf, examining the wound through the bandages. "I should be able to do something for it, but you'll have to wait properly for Beorn to get back before he can heal it fully. He works wonders with healing."

"Since when do you know anything about wounds?" Ella managed to laugh weakly.

Jerelee grinned at her as she straightened up. "Since I fell out of a tree when I first arrived, that's when." She raised a hand to push back some stray locks of hair that had fallen over her face, and Ella saw swirling patterns on her wrist – a mark eerily similar to Ella's own.

"Uh, this is Jerelee Yin," Ella said, gesturing a hand towards the girl standing before them, who was slightly taller than about half the dwarfs. "She's, ah, from my world. Lee, this is the company of Thorin Oakenshield. This is Gandalf the Grey, Mr Bilbo Baggins, and Thorin, Dwalin, Balin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Kili and Fili."

"Oh, god," was all Jerelee said. "That's a lot of names. Heck, that's a lot of dwarves. What's with all the facial hair?"

Ella managed a laugh, as the dwarves chuckled at Jerelee's words.

And then – "Why are you so tiny?" Jerelee asked her. "You used to tower over me."

"Well, why aren't you wearing glasses?"

"The perks of being dead one moment and waking up in another world the next. My eyesight is practically perfect." She grinned again. "Don't tell me you woke up to find that you shrunk and your eyesight as bad as ever."

"Well, they always did say you got all the luck."

Jerelee laughed, that bright, familiar laughter that Ella knew all too well. She felt herself relaxing even more in Fili's arms. Jerelee had always found it easy to make people smile, to look at the bright side of things. It was probably why it felt so simple, so easy, to talk to her now. To forget that the reason they were both here in a different world, both here because they were dead in the world they'd grown up in.

Jerelee.

She'd missed her so much.

"Well." Now Jerelee had turned serious, thoughtful, was glancing around at the dwarfs and Bilbo and Gandalf. "I can't say that Beorn will be too pleased with thirteen dwarfs and et cetera taking refuge in his house. I don't think he's very fond of dwarfs."

Thorin stepped forward then, his face darker than it usually was.

"And where is this Beorn, this master of this house?"

"Outside," said Jerelee, mildly. "After all, you did slam the door in his face."

At this, the company stopped and stared at her for a long moment, before turning to fix their glares on Gandalf.

"I did not have the opportunity to mention that he is our host," Gandalf said smoothly, raising his eyebrows at them as he began to walk into the room. "He is a skin-changer. Sometimes he is a huge black bear; sometimes, he is a great, strong man. The bear is unpredictable, but the man can be reasoned with. And the lady is quite right – Beorn is not over fond of dwarfs."

"Absolutely despises them, really," said Jerelee cheerfully, making Ella laugh and a small smile slide over Ori's face. "You can make yourselves comfortable, but remember this – here, you are guests." Her eyes turned hard, cold, and Ella was reminded of the few times that Jerelee had lost her temper. Rare times, but once on the receiving end of her temper, there were few who would risk incurring her wrath again. "Should Beorn wish for it, he would throw you out of the house without a moment's hesitation."

"He's under some kind of dark spell, isn't he?" Dori asked, having hauled Ori away from the door. "It's obvious."

"Don't be a fool," Gandalf snapped. "He's under no enchantment but his own."

"That he is." Jerelee gave the wizard a small smile, before turning her attention back to the dwarfs. "You all can get some rest – you'll be safe here."

Her eyes fell on Ori, his sleeve still in Dori's grasp, his eyes never leaving her face, and Jerelee turned away quickly.

"Can you help her?"

Fili had brought Ella nearer to her friend, still supporting her as she winced, mumbling something along the lines of "I can walk perfectly well on my own".

"Still as stubborn as ever, I see." Jerelee supported Ella's other side as she led the dark girl – the dark girl who was once so much taller than her, whose own terrible eyesight had once been infinitely better than Jerelee's own – to a large pile of hay with blankets spread above it, letting her lie down on it. She winced when she pushed Ella's pants up her right calf, slowly unwinding Oin's bandages. "What caused this?"

"Warg."

Fili kept his eyes on Ella's face as she bit her lip.

"Beorn will be able to heal this leg completely, but I'll do what I can first." Jerelee fetched a large wooden box and bag from one of the shelves in the room, before returning to sit by Ella. She gave Fili a quizzical glance. "You can go and sleep, if you want. I'll take care of her."

The "No" was nearly out of Fili's mouth when he choked it back. What if Ella wanted to be alone with Jerelee? After all, she'd told him enough about how they'd spent so much time together, how Jerelee was like another sister to her, nearly as close as she was to Emma.

And then he felt a hand, a small, cool, comforting hand, wrap around his.

"The pile of hay's big enough for two people." Ella was looking at him. "You can sleep here."

And Fili felt a smile flicker across his face.

"You just really want me to stay but you're just too shy to say it, aren't you?" he said, grinning. "And you're feeling guilty about even thinking of asking me to stay with you in my sleep deprived state."

He saw the heat rise up to her face. "I never said that. You could go look after Kili."

"You didn't have to. And Kili's fine – look, he's bothering Dwalin."

And Jerelee watched, interestedly, pausing to look up from her rummage through the medicine box, as Fili pressed his lips to her forehead before collapsing onto the hay next to her, his hand clasping over hers.

* * *

Fili wasn't sure how long he had drifted in and out of sleep, vaguely aware of Ella still awake next to him, talking with Jerelee. He heard names and incidents and something about painting and sketching, lots of it, cheerful things that made them giggle, made them break into laughter, Jerelee trying to avoid any mention of anything upsetting, Ella quietly grateful for that.

His ears only pricked up when he heard Jerelee say: "So, dwarfs?"

"They found me," was Ella's reply, as Fili felt his senses grow sharper as he woke up fully, making sure he lay still as he did so. "And Gandalf – well, he's a wizard, you know, and when they told me they were dwarfs and everything, I just sort of guessed, and he confirmed it for me. Like telling me about the mark on my wrist."

"Lucky you," said Jerelee, laughing quietly, so as not to wake up the rest of the company. "I found myself at the top of a tree – at the top of a tree, can you believe it? – with Beorn standing below glaring up at me. I fell right off in shock and he caught me and brought me over here. And he – well, you'll see him later – I just couldn't stop screaming and shrieking, you know? Because the last thing I remembered was getting hit by a car, and then I was suddenly at the top of a tree with birds chirping and bees buzzing around me. And this huge freaky scary guy standing below me.

"But Beorn took care of me, and he found this wizard friend of his to see if he might know anything about me, because, you know, I was sort of in school uniform when I arrived and I was just freaking out and he had no idea what to do with me. So this wizard guy, Radagast or something – "

"Radagast the Brown?"

"Yeah, you know him too?"

"We've seen him before."

"Yeah, the guy with the bird shit trailing down his hair and everything, right? So anyway, he comes to visit, and he's really, really weird, but he was pretty cool, and he saw the mark on my wrist and talked to me and everything before explaining that I was in a whole different world because I'd died before my time or something like that. Like, a second chance. And I think I started screaming again, but he and Beorn were super patient with me and everything, and after a while I just sort of accepted it, and I've been staying with Beorn ever since. For, like, I don't know, maybe one and a half weeks, or two?"

"Well, you've had a house. I don't think I've ever stayed anywhere with a proper bed since I came here, except for maybe just one night."

"Hey, but you're on an adventure, right? I remember how Addy and Tiffany and me always used to make fun of you for that and how you'd end up ignoring us." A wistful tone had crept into Jerelee's voice now. Jerelee, Fili remembered Ella telling him, didn't do grief or sadness very well. She lived in the moment, for the moment.

"They'd probably both start screaming about how terrible and unhygienic everything is and freak out about not having Wi-fi or not being able to wash their hair everyday."

"That they would. And," Jerelee said, and now she was giggling, "what's with you and the blond dwarf?"

Fili held his breath.

"Fili." He could hear something in Ella's voice – he wasn't very sure what it was, but it made him happy, made him feel the urge to smile and laugh and throw his arms around her.

"Ella."

There was a note, a warning note, in Jerelee's voice.

"How long have you known him?"

"Not very long." Ella's voice was quiet.

"Ella, you know you – "

"It's _not_ like that, Lee." Fili had to force himself to keep his eyes clenched shut, to act as if he were still sleeping, as he felt Ella take a deep breath beside him. "It's not like Don, or Kevin, or – "

"Ella, you know how easily you fall for people." Jerelee's voice had grown gentle. "I just don't want you to get hurt, or anything. I saw the way you look at him. It's almost like the way you look at Emma. But more. Something even more."

"It's just, Don and Kevin and all that, they were different, you know?" Fili felt Ella's hands tighten around his as she continued speaking. "Like, I thought I liked them, but it wasn't. It wasn't really. With Fili, it's different. He makes me feel – makes me feel completely _whole_. Like there was a missing puzzle piece I didn't know existed, and he's that missing piece, you know? And everything just feels _right _when I'm with him."

Fili didn't hear anything for a long, long moment.

"And," he heard Ella continue, "I think he – I don't know, but – he never does leave me alone – and he's always taking care of me – and he's so sweet and everything even though he's a warrior and – "

"Ella. Relax." Jerelee's voice had lightened considerably. "I saw how he looked at you too, when you took his hand. And when he kissed you on your forehead – well, I have to say, he's a much better choice than all those idiots back home."

They both laughed slightly at that.

"I just needed to make sure."

"Thanks, Lee."

"But you do know that dwarves live much, much longer lives than us humans, right?" There was a sad note to Jerelee's voice now. "He could easily be eighty to ninety years old."

"I know," Ella said, quietly, and she said nothing else, and her friend squeezed her free hand before changing the topic.

"So, how long - ?"

"Not very long, but it just sort of – sort of happened."

"Oh god." There was a laugh in Jerelee's voice. "You've kissed, haven't you?"

"Well – "

"I can't believe you kept that from me!"

"It wasn't like I actually had the opportunity to tell you!"

"Idiot."

Another round of muffled laughing.

"And, by the way," Jerelee asked, casually, "what's that dwarf's name again? The one who doesn't really look like a fighter, you know, the one with the book and slingshot and stuff?"

"Oh. Ori. Why?"

"Nothing." A pause, and then, "I just had the strangest feeling when I saw him."

"He's very sweet."

And then Fili heard Jerelee get to her feet, packing up her stuff. "You'd better go sleep. We can talk more in the morning, and Beorn can take a look at your leg for you."

"Okay," said Ella, yawning. "Thanks, Lee."

"Just go sleep."

And as Ella settled herself comfortably beside Fili, turning over to face him and burying her head in his shoulder, he heard Jerelee mutter to herself as she kept her things, out of Ella's earshot: "I swear, if he ever does anything to hurt Ella, I will personally hunt him down and make sure he can never have any children."

* * *

**So Jerelee really did die - and like Ella, she died before her time, though not to save someone she loved! (Which is why her life in this world won't be as crazy and impactful as Ella's! Although of course it _may_ be particularly impactful towards a certain dwarf...)**


	15. Chapter 15

**So I'm back! Yay.**

**Anyway, I realised I have made a terrible, grievous mistake when I wrote about Ella's injury - because I just reread some of my stuff, and I realised that if a Warg really HAD bitten her, the injury would be really severe, and she'd need stitches and everything, and all I really wanted was for her to be injured enough and in danger enough for Fili to get all overprotective! And then I realised how bad the injury would actually have to be, because those teeth are really, REALLY sharp. And it should've gotten stitches or something instead of just being healed by Oin. So yes. I'd like to apologise for messing up that particular aspect of this story SO badly! And especially for downplaying her injury so much when it should probably have been a thousand times more painful. AND also for how it's healed. So, yes, I'm really really sorry! I seek your forgiveness D: **

**So, you know, I hope the rest of the story's okay, apart from that really, REALLY messed up bit!**

**And, well, so here's chapter fifteen! It's, you know, fantastic to know that you guys enjoy it and everything (even though I don't ever reply reviews)! Yes I know I'm a terrible person ahhh**

**Okay, I'll stop now.**

* * *

"Jerelee?" Pippin was staring at Bilbo, wide-eyed. "She died and ended up in this world too?"

"Yes, she did," said Bilbo, thoroughly enjoying himself, as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin looked up at him. "She was lovely, absolutely lovely – in our short time there, always ready to help, always ready to make us laugh or smile…"

"She sounds lovely," Frodo said.

* * *

Ori couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so much.

After the company had finally met Beorn that morning, who had proved terrifying enough even without his dislike for dwarfs, Jerelee had managed to convince him to treat Ella and to help them. It helped, Ori thought, that they were on the run from Orcs; Ori could understand completely, after hearing Beorn's story, why the skin-changer was willing to help them in order to outwit, or at the very least get away from, the Orc pack.

Ori had watched as Beorn treated Ella's wound, making her let out a string of expletives as she winced and grabbed onto Fili's arm tightly; but somehow, somehow, the ache in his heart did not hurt so much. It had, he realised with a jerk, been fading over the past few days, as Fili and Ella had spent more time together and he'd come to accept it; maybe all he'd really felt for Ella was an infatuation, something he'd thrown his emotions into because she was so different.

Yes, it was still difficult for him to talk to either of them; but now, he knew, it was getting slightly better.

But that had been in the morning, and now it was nearing lunch; and the whole time Jerelee had been entertaining him, Dori, Nori, Bilbo, Kili and Fili, who had been practically dragged away from Ella's bedside by Jerelee, after the human girl had scolded him, telling him that if Beorn said that Ella needed rest and peace and would be healed by sundown she would be, and that he was in no way allowed to disturb her.

Fili had only gaped at her for a short moment before Jerelee launched into a story of how Ella had once fallen down two flights of stairs because she'd been screaming when a squirrel had jumped onto a railing not far from her, making them all roar with laughter.

She had hardly stopped talking since they began, only stopping once in a while for the dwarfs to tell a story of their own.

"And then so because it was a brand new class and the teacher didn't know us, and we didn't know her, she didn't know our names, right? So I told her I had to leave at twelve thirty because I had something on, and so she said, all right, what's your name again? And I told her twelve thirty! And she just looked at me again and asked me the same question, and I told her twelve thirty _again_!"

Ori doubled over, choking on his laughter, as Jerelee adjusted her voice to change character and made large, expressive gestures with her hands, her face rapidly changing expressions. The story didn't even have to be _funny_ for them to laugh, Ori realised – it was all in the way that Jerelee told the story.

He had never met anyone who'd been able to make him laugh easily and so much before.

He didn't think he'd ever met anyone who was able to make him feel so carefree and lighthearted and happy, and especially not after only a few hours.

He remembered when he'd first seen her, just before she'd thrown herself at Ella – he'd had a strange, tugging feeling in him, and so his eyes had never left her, following her as she moved about the room, still fixed on her as he fell asleep.

There were times when she made references that none of them could understand; and her face would fall slightly, and her eyes would glint, and then she'd sniff and look away for a short while, before turning back with a massive smile on her face.

She just pushed all the grief and sadness away, and didn't let it take over her; replaced it with laughter, and lots of it.

Ori could only find himself staring at her across the massive table, with her choppy dark hair and wide brown eyes.

It was, he thought, different from Ella, who kept breaking down, unable to control her emotions, pushing them away and letting herself wallow in sadness.

"And you know I had this friend, she was _such _an idiot, she brought a glass water bottle to class! And our tables were tiny and flimsy, and you know what would've happened, right? Someone smashed it to the floor after like five seconds, and everywhere was wet and there was glass all over the floor, and someone was asking Lila why on earth she brought a glass bottle to class? Because you don't bring a glass bottle to school, you know, because you could drop it anywhere, in the canteen or in the classroom or in the corridor, or someone could run into you or crash into you or accidentally knock into the bottle and break it! And then Ella, that idiot, she walks in without her shoes because it was raining and her shoes were soaked, and she steps in the puddle of water!"

Here Jerelee dissolved into laughter, a loud, contagious laughter that got all the dwarves around her to laugh as well. Yes, Ori thought, it wasn't even about how funny the story was – it was Jerelee, all Jerelee, she and her wide smile and her contagious laughter.

He thought he could understand why Ella, usually serious apart from her sarcastic comments and occasional funny statements, needed her.

"Wait, wait, okay," Jerelee was saying. "So you're a – a hobbit. That is so cool. I mean, no offence or anything, but I've heard of dwarfs and stuff, but _never _of hobbits."

Bilbo only smiled at her. "Well, then, I'm delighted to be the first to bring you the news of the existence of hobbits, and to be the proof of it as well."

She laughed.

"And you're Kili, and you're Fili," Jerelee continued, turning to the two. "And you're brothers, right?"

"That we are, my lovely lady," Kili said, grinning and winking at her, causing her to laugh and roll her eyes.

"And Dori, Nori and Ori, right? So that's – you're brothers too?"

At their nods, Jerelee let out a relieved sigh. "Oh god, wow, okay that makes things so much easier. So Balin and Dwalin – and then Oin and Gloin – Oin's the healer guy, right? – and then there's Bombur and Bifur and Bofur?"

"Bifur's their cousin," said Ori, speaking up after what seemed like hours of laughing, and Jerelee's eyes flashed over to him instantly. He felt his face heat up, suddenly wondered why he hadn't spoken up earlier if it meant her looking at him with those wide eyes of hers.

"Right, cousin," she murmured.

He thought he saw her eyes flash over to him again before her face flushed slightly, and she turned to Nori who was beginning to tell her one of his many exploits.

* * *

Jerelee couldn't even remember what they talked about.

All she could remember was Dori leaving the kitchen to seek out Balin, and Fili being dragged out by Nori and Kili to do some training instead of watching Ella while she slept.

And then Ori sitting there, his book on the table, scribbling in it furiously.

"What are you doing?" she'd asked, ignoring her heart rate increasing dramatically as she moved around to sit across him.

"Writing," he'd said. "About this house, about Beorn, and about – " Here his face flushed. "About you."

It was one of those few times Jerelee wasn't very sure what to say.

And then they began to talk.

Jerelee couldn't remember much, only that Ori had spoken of the Blue Mountains, or Ered Luin, and about the rest of the company, like how Bifur could only speak some bits of Khuzdul because of the axe in his head, and of their journey so far, and had even shown her some sketches in his book and some of what he'd written – though of course she couldn't understand it.

But even if she hadn't remembered that much, she supposed she wouldn't mind spending days like this.

* * *

"How's Emma?"

Jerelee and Ella were lying side by side while the dwarfs were having dinner with Bilbo and Gandalf and Beorn.

Ella stared at the ceiling, blinking back tears that were threatening to spill over.

"She was very upset," said Jerelee, straightforward as usual. "She thought it was her fault at first, that if she hadn't been standing there, that if she hadn't wanted to draw that day, then you'd still be around. But we all knocked some sense into her. Told her you'd probably come back and make her life miserable if she continued thinking that way."

Despite the overwhelming sadness that was filling her, Ella managed to laugh.

"And how are my parents?"

"Your mum, well, she's been kind of depressed," Jerelee said, quietly. "But last I saw, her friend – Rosa, or something? – had started to bring her out and make her smile again. Your dad helped a lot too. He's just been throwing himself into his work, but just before I, you know, died, he was spending more time with Emma too, talking to her properly and becoming more interested in her art. She said she wouldn't mind doing art for a living."

"Does she still draw anything and everything?"

"Oh, yeah. She's even painting now."

"What about Addy and Tiffany?"

"They've both been seriously upset. Couldn't pull themselves together the first few weeks. But you know Tiff, she's got faith and everything, and Addy – remember Jason? Her old boyfriend? – she got back together with him and he's been helping her out a lot."

Ella nodded, slowly.

Jerelee, lovely Jerelee, who always knew the right thing to say, who would go out of her way without a moment's hesitation for a friend. Jerelee, who would always be there for her.

"Thanks," she said, finally.

* * *

Dwalin stopped just as he stepped into the doorway.

He'd thought Beorn's house was empty. Well, he had expected it to be – almost all the dwarves were outside, trying to get in as much training as they could before they had to leave – and he had seen Ori and that human girl Jerelee disappear some time ago, Jerelee tugging at his arm, Ori's face red. He'd thought that they had gone to find Ella and Fili.

Apparently, he'd been wrong.

Ella was sitting cross-legged on a pile of hay, her back against the wall. It had been a miracle what Beorn had done for her wounded leg the day before, healing it so that she had practically no problems with it whatsoever. Once he had assured her that it was perfectly safe, Ella had been on her feet in an instant, laughing and twirling around, dragging Fili along with her. Beorn had, however, given her a small pouch of some kind of salve to apply to her leg every morning and night, just to make sure the injury stayed healed.

Ella and Fili had, Dwalin realised, been surrounded by the company almost every day since they had left the Carrock all those nights ago. It was only now, in Beorn's massive house, that they could finally be alone.

He saw Ella sitting against the wall, cross-legged, her head bent over something on her lap, her dark hair falling in curtains around her so that he couldn't see what it was.

And then he noticed that there was a pair of shoulders just in front of Ella's crossed legs, with a torso and a pair of legs attached.

And then he realised that Fili was lying with his head on Ella's lap.

He saw the dark mane of hair move upwards slightly.

"The others are probably wondering where we are," he heard Ella say.

"Let them wonder. They'll find us soon enough." Fili's hands snaked up around over Ella's head.

"Fili."

"We are going to be stuck with them for the rest of the journey, you realise. I'm sure they can last a morning without us."

"Well, if you put it that way – "

"Of course I'm right." Fili's hands tightened over Ella's head. "Don't worry so much." And then he pulled her head down slightly, and Dwalin could only imagine what they were doing as Ella's protests were abruptly cut off.

Shaking his head to himself, he backed out of the doorway.

* * *

Ella lifted her lips from Fili's once he'd finally released his hold on her head. "That wasn't fair."

"You mean you don't want to do it again?" He looked up at her, grinning cheekily, making Ella roll her eyes and flush.

"I never said that."

"Good."

And then Fili grabbed hold of the back of her head again, pulling her down to kiss her, and Ella felt herself melt.

* * *

When Bofur stuck his head around the doorway later that day, it was to find both of them sprawled on the hay, their legs pointing in opposite directions as they lay with their heads facing each other.

"We haven't gotten out of the room the whole day," Ella was saying.

"It's only afternoon."

"You should go out and train."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Maybe I am."

"Well, I'm sure I could find some way to make you want me to stay," said Fili, and he rolled over so that his face was directly above hers.

"Oh, no," she said.

Fili gave her a hurt look. "You're getting sick of me?"

"I'm sure that'll probably come some time soon in the future."

"I could always persuade you otherwise." He grinned at her, wriggled his eyebrows, making her laugh.

"Oh, just get back down and talk to me." And Ella yanked him down onto the hay next to her as he chuckled, his hand finding hers.

Bofur let out a low chuckle and returned to the garden.

* * *

It was Nori who found Jerelee and Ori stumbling around in Beorn's massive garden, both of them talking non-stop, Jerelee occasionally grabbing Ori's hand to drag him somewhere or pointing something out to him, making both of their faces flush red.

At times, Nori noted, they would both start talking eagerly, turning to face each other and smile widely at each other, before their smiles would falter and they would turn their faces away, looking embarrassed.

Sometimes they would talk, murmuring in low voices or yakking away cheerfully, with either one of them perpetually breaking out into laughter.

Ori and Jerelee.

Nori watched them for a while.

Ori, he thought, looked happier than he'd ever seen him. No, that wasn't exactly accurate – he'd almost looked this happy yesterday, when Jerelee had been making all of them laugh.

And as for Jerelee, her whole face seemed to be lit up from the inside as she chattered eagerly, this time making Ori laugh.

Nori smiled to himself. He'd told Ori he'd find someone, hadn't he? Even if it seemed as if neither of them had fully realised or accepted the fact.

He backed away quietly.

* * *

Beorn raised his eyebrows when he saw Jerelee and Ori stumble back into his house hand in hand, making Jerelee flush when she saw him glance at her.

Jerelee and the young dwarf.

Well, it was good for her. Of course Beorn would on no account let her follow them on this quest – a foolish quest, especially as they were on the run from Orcs, and the fact that they had to pass through Mirkwood and still find some way to get to the Lonely Mountain and defeat Smaug – but if the young dwarf was willing to travel back all this way to find her…

He supposed he wouldn't mind parting with her then.

The skin-changer had formed a close bond with the human other-worlder since she'd first arrived shrieking her head off and dressed in the oddest assortment of clothes, including a skirt that fell to her knees – her knees! – and it had been discovered that she was from a completely different world. She hadn't accepted it easily, but she'd accepted it soon enough, using laughter and cheer to hide her grief and sadness at leaving her old life behind.

She was content to stay with Beorn, but she wasn't exactly particularly happy or full of life.

And seeing her with that young dwarf – Beorn decided that yes, he really wouldn't be very displeased if she chose to leave him, if the dwarves' quest succeeded and that young dwarf came back for her.

* * *

Night was falling when Fili heard movement behind him.

"I need to talk to you."

He turned around, slowly.

It was Jerelee, her face still flushed from her walk around Beorn's house with Ori – Fili wasn't an idiot, he saw how the two looked at each other the day before, even if they'd barely spoken to each other at the time – and she was running her hands through her hair, her face serious.

He glanced back quickly, to where Ella was sitting with Bilbo, the hobbit making her laugh with tales of his exploits in his youth, his constantly getting into trouble.

"Okay."

He got to his feet and followed her through the house, looking back every so often.

"She's fine," Jerelee said, as they entered yet another empty room, this time sinking down onto a bench by the wall. "Just exhausted, that's all. It's a miracle she managed to keep up with all of you for so long, with that kind of injury."

"I carried her most of the time."

"Ah." Jerelee observed him as the blond dwarf sat by her, uncomfortable.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, hurriedly, finally, as Jerelee continued to sit still, watching him.

"Ella, obviously," she said. "And I will tell you this. If you ever hurt her, I will personally hunt you down and cut off your balls."

Fili swallowed.

Somehow, he didn't think that Jerelee was joking.

"But I have seen how you look after her." Jerelee had turned to face the window. "Hell, I've seen the way you _look_ at her. And I don't think you would do anything to harm her, not on purpose."

Fili decided it would be safer to just nod.

He'd never been on the receiving end of a lecture about how to treat a girl properly. Well, not by said girl's friends. His mother had lectured him once, after noticing how much time he'd been spending with Freya, back in the Blue Mountains – even though there had been absolutely _nothing _between them – and it had nearly turned into an argument.

"I need to tell you, though," continued Jerelee. "That Ella's an idiot."

She leaned back on the bench, turned back around to face him.

"Oh, she's great, yeah," she said. "But she is also an idiot. And she has very low self-esteem. A few more days, and you'll probably find her drawing away from you because she won't believe that anyone would care for her so much."

"I – "

"Shut up and let me talk. And not only that, she's got a really short temper, and it can get really bad. And she's very prideful, very stubborn, and when she's emotionally hurt, she tends to see only herself and forget about others around her who could be hurt as well. She's careless and clumsy and prone to injury, and sometimes she'll just be in a terrible mood and nobody can get through to her. She needs people, and needs people to need her, and she doesn't forgive easily."

"I thought you were her friend."

"What do you take me for, some kind of hypocrite? Of course I'm her friend. But I'm telling you this because from what I understand you haven't known each other that long. And I want you to fully understand what she's like, in case something happens between you two. Hell, to prevent something from happening between you two that would hurt either one of you or both of you emotionally. Okay?"

"I wouldn't – "

"Hey. It's a warning."

Jerelee folded her arms and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Thanks," he said, finally. "I think."

Jerelee smiled widely. "As long as you don't do anything stupid, you should be safe. Ella doesn't mind the feeling of being protected, but it's only to a certain extent."

Fili just nodded.

"And do me a favour," she said. "Take care of her. She's a complete idiot."

She rose to her feet, nodded, and left him.

* * *

"So you're leaving tomorrow."

Jerelee and Ella sat cross-legged opposite each other.

"Yeah." Ella bit her lip. "I'm sorry I didn't manage to spend so much time with you."

Jerelee laughed. "It's okay. I've spent almost all my time with you since we were thirteen. I'm pretty sure I could spare you for a few days."

"But – " Ella faltered, then continued, "You thought I was dead – "

"Hey." Jerelee shrugged. "It was bad, at first, but we did remind ourselves how you'd probably come back and start nagging at us if you found us mourning. And after I ended up here and Radagast explained things – I figured, you know, if I ended up here, you must've ended up somewhere else too, right? So it wasn't that bad. And I wasn't going to interrupt your time with Fili." Jerelee winked.

"Lee!"

"Hey, I'm serious."

Ella just pushed up her glasses, tugged at her hair.

"Just asking," Jerelee said, "but how the heck did your glasses stay intact throughout the whole journey?"

"That," said Ella, "is an excellent question. My dad must've known I'd end up with huge wolf-like beasts and ugly Wargs and disgusting goblins and basically spend my days running and screaming through the woods and fighting to stay alive."

They laughed.

"Ella?"

It was Fili, glancing around the doorway.

"Go," Jerelee said, smiling, inclining her head.

"But – "

"_Go_."

Ella smiled at her, widely, and then clambered to her feet.

And as she stood up, Fili's eyes widened. "You're bleeding!"

Jerelee and Ella looked at him – and then both glanced down to where Ella had been sitting on a pile of hay, stained red with blood.

The dark girl began blushing furiously while Jerelee got to her feet, choking back laughter.

"Is it your injury? Are you okay?"

Fili was walking towards her now, eyes wide, full of concern, frowning, full of worry.

"Oh my god, yes!" Ella's voice came out in an embarrassed squeak as Jerelee struggled to hold back laughter as she dug through a cupboard. "Just – just stay there, oh my god, please, this is embarrassing – "

"But – "

"Stay there!"

Her voice had turned slightly hysterical, and Fili stopped, looking at her worriedly.

"She'll be fine," Jerelee said, returning to Ella's side with a few strips of cloth. "Just – just go out, please – "

"But she's bleeding," Fili argued, taking another step closer.

"She'll be fine," Jerelee insisted, her eyes flicking over his shoulder briefly.

"Fili."

It was Bofur and Gloin, both looking faintly embarrassed, moving up to stand next to him.

"Just come," Gloin said to him, in a low voice, as Ella backed away slightly so that she was pressed up against the wall, uncontrollable giggles now leaking from Jerelee who was hunched over in laughter.

"But – "

"Lad," Bofur said, "it's a female thing." He glanced over at Ella, who was whacking Jerelee on the shoulder, hissing something to her. "She'll be fine."

"Trust me," said Gloin, "my wife's gone through it. She'll be perfectly all right."

Fili took another look at Ella, who was determinedly avoiding his eyes, her face still flushed from embarrassment, and unwillingly stepped out the doorway.

* * *

"This is humiliating," Ella murmured to Jerelee after dinner. She'd stayed by her friend throughout the whole evening after they'd scrubbed the stain out, still avoiding Fili's eyes. Now they sat in Jerelee's room, Ella still much too embarrassed to face the dwarfs. "It had to be Fili who saw it."

"If you're together with him, it shouldn't be _that _embarrassing – "

"But that's just exactly why it is!"

"Don't be an idiot, he'll have to know about this kind of thing – "

"But he didn't!"

"I'm sure one of the dwarfs will tell him," said Jerelee, dismissively. "Really, Ella, you're over-thinking this."

"I am _not_!"

"Don't argue with me. You _are_."

Ella opened her mouth – and then chuckled, softly, sadly. "Do you remember having nearly this exact same argument before?"

"We've probably had it every other week," said Jerelee, smiling sadly. "From buying a new water bottle – "

" – to getting new shorts – "

" – to whether we should get food when we were trying to be weight-conscious – "

" – and remember when you got those shorts – "

" – don't remind me about those shorts, remember that tank top?"

They both smiled faintly.

"And Addy and Tiff would laugh so much," said Ella softly.

"Diane and everyone else, too."

They sat, quietly.

* * *

"Bofur and Gloin have told me of what has happened."

Ella glanced up, flushing, to see Thorin before her, his arms crossed.

"You know that our time is limited," he said.

"I'll be fine," Ella said, feeling anger rise up in her slightly. She knew how to take care of herself. "Lee's taught me how to deal with it. Just give me a moment every few hours and I'll be fine."

"I have a sister. I – "

"I," Ella cut in with gritted teeth, "will be _fine_."

Thorin took a long look at her.

Then the briefest of smiles broke out over his face.

"Very well, Miss Aidan," he said.

* * *

Jerelee and Ori stood opposite each other, Jerelee running a hand through her hair while Ori clutched his book tightly in his hands, both of their faces red.

"I have something for you," he blurted out, suddenly, pulling a folded loose sheet of paper and passing it to her. "Don't – don't open it now, open it when we leave, please?"

Jerelee's faced turned even redder, if possible. "I – ah – okay." She held the paper in her hands, held it as if she would never let it go.

They stood awkwardly in silence for a moment.

"Will you – " Jerelee paused, bit her lip, then hurried on: "Will you come back? After your – after your quest? I mean, I'd like to follow, I really would, but there's Beorn, and you already have so many people, and all right, to be honest, I wouldn't really be fond of trekking around in the woods and mud like Ella is, but anyway, that's not the point, but I mean, if it's not too much trouble, or anything, I mean, could you – would you – you know, come back?"

Ori looked at her, eyes widening.

"Do you – do you want me to?"

Jerelee ran a hand through her hair again.

"I – I mean – I – yeah – yeah, I would," she stammered, glancing back down at the ground, looking embarrassed. "I mean, if you – if you, you know, can't, or it's too dangerous, or something, it's okay, I mean, I was just wondering – "

"Yes," Ori said, and Jerelee's head shot up, her eyes searching his. "Of course. Of course I will."

Nori, leaning against the wall, smiled to himself.

* * *

**Well so here's the end of chapter fifteen...hope you liked it!  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello! I'm back!**

**Sorry it took me so long to update this chapter! Been really, really busy with school!**

**Anyway, reviews would be great, so you can let me know what you think of it!**

**It's not one of my better chapters, but hope you'll still like it!**

* * *

"I suppose this is goodbye?"

Ori stood next to the pony he was going to share with Dori, Jerelee standing in front of him.

Her face flushed, slightly.

"Yes."

Ori caught sight of the folded paper, still in her hands.

"Goodbye, then," he said, finally, taking a step back towards the pony.

Jerelee opened her mouth as if to say something, and then shut it.

From atop the pony, Dori watched the two of them.

Then Jerelee darted forward, pressed her lips to his cheek, and stepped back, face red.

"Goodbye," she said.

And then she turned and hurried away.

And Ori stood a moment, a large, goofy smile beginning to spread across his face.

* * *

Fili wasn't very sure what to think, or do, or say.

He remembered how mortified and embarrassed Ella had looked the previous night, how she'd made him stay back, how she'd backed away from him, face flushing.

And then how Bofur and Gloin had led him from the room, and how they'd explained to him everything.

Yes, he could understand why she was so flustered and embarrassed.

But his face grew hot when he thought of how he'd probably made her feel about a hundred times worse.

"What about Ella?" Kili asked, when he saw his brother loading up his pony with more supplies. "She's not going to have space to ride with you."

"I think she might prefer that she didn't," Fili muttered, and had to turn away when he saw Ella come out of Beorn's house.

* * *

Ella couldn't ever remember feeling so miserable in her life before.

Well, there was that time she'd failed that history paper that she'd worked so hard on.

But that was a different matter entirely.

It had been bad enough that she'd ridden with Bilbo on the way to Mirkwood, that he'd somehow managed to put up with her growing temper, that it had taken both him and Bofur to get her to even smile, that she'd felt absolutely terrible for treating them like that but still couldn't stop herself from snapping at them.

And then they'd finally reached Mirkwood, a gloomy forest that felt so ill and sick and diseased Ella wondered how it'd even managed to survive.

And then of course Gandalf had to insist that he had other places to be, and had effectively abandoned them completely, as far as Ella was concerned.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

It was, naturally, expectedly, absolute misery to be having her time of the month at that particular time. In a company full of male dwarves and a hobbit. And trekking through a sickening forest, and being unable to leave the path.

It was, she thought, absolute torture and absolutely humiliating to keep having to wander back the Elven path slightly, away from the company, and find somewhere to hide a moment to change out quickly.

Ella doubted anyone could ever have learnt to change as quickly and as efficiently as her.

She'd had to get Bilbo to make sure none of the dwarfs strayed back the path by accident, and Bofur as well. They were both being very good-natured about it, and Ella was starting to feel slightly more comfortable about it, but she was still horribly embarrassed.

There were few places on the path where she could actually hide properly, and she really didn't want to think about what could be watching her.

After all, the whole company saw the eyes in the dark of the night, saw the eyes staring out at them.

She was grateful, though, that she was quite sure she'd finally reached her last day.

With a lack of water at the present, the cloths and other materials Jerelee had given her had remained completely stained and soaked through. Thank God Jerelee had packed more than enough; it was enough to last her two weeks at least. Jerelee always had been an efficient packer.

And she wasn't being as bad-tempered as before anymore, thank goodness. She'd stopped snapping at them so often, though her mood swings were still severe. Even with their supply of food steadily decreasing, Bilbo or one of the dwarfs always had some spare food on them, and had often forced her to bite into an apple or whatever food they had at the time in order to make sure she kept her strength.

This whole experience had to be one of the most uncomfortable, humiliating, awkward things she'd ever experienced in her life.

But having her time of the month wasn't the worst of it. Oh, no.

There was still the nightmares.

They hadn't come since their time in Beorn's house.

But now, night after night after night, she saw even worse things – a town on fire, screaming, gold coins clinking, packs of Orcs, a massive, magnificient red-gold dragon breathing fire. Every night, she'd curl up in between Bofur and Bombur and Bifur, and she was grateful for Bombur's bulk, that hid her shivering, muffled her whimpers.

And _then_ there was her injury.

The Warg bite that Beorn had healed so expertly had been fine the first few days.

But ever since she'd woken up two days ago with a stinging pain in her leg, it had only gotten worse.

She applied Beorn's salve every morning and night, and tried to put as little weight on it as possible, but still it stung, up to the point where she'd had to slow down a great deal as she hobbled and limped along on her leg. Luckily, the dwarves were so intent on making sure they stayed on the path that they'd slowed their pace as well, and Ella had been able to limp along on it well enough, without any of the dwarves noticing.

It hurt like hell, even if it wasn't bleeding anymore, but Ella wasn't going to waste any more of the dwarves' time if necessary, and especially not in Mirkwood.

But that wasn't the worst part, either.

No, the worst part had to be Fili.

He wasn't talking to her anymore.

Not since the morning after he'd run into her, panicked that she was bleeding. He'd saddled up his pony, had stuck by Kili, had pranced around waiting for the rest of the company, and had only stopped by her to say "good morning" before moving off hurriedly.

Fili. Lovely Fili, wonderful Fili. Who'd always been there for her.

And now was avoiding her completely.

He wouldn't look at her, wouldn't talk to her, wouldn't even walk with her at the back of the group, leaving the rear guard to Nori and Bofur, with Bombur in front of Ella and Bilbo.

And Ella had never felt so upset in her whole life.

Bilbo was tactful enough not to say anything, but Bofur pestered her constantly about getting her to talk to Fili, telling her it was probably because she wasn't saying anything to him either that Fili wasn't talking t her.

Ella couldn't even remember the number of times she'd stormed away from Bofur, heart pounding and growing angrier by the second, before falling back to his side only a few hours later, mumbling apologies.

Every so often she'd glance up, and he'd be looking at her, before turning away.

Ella was so, so tempted to just go up and make him talk to her.

But her pride wouldn't let her.

If Fili wouldn't talk to her, then that was his problem, and she wasn't going to do anything about it.

Her pride, Ella thought, had always been her biggest flaw.

She could hear Jerelee and Addy and Tiffany in her head, nagging at her to just go up to him, to put aside her stupid, _stupid _pride for about five minutes.

And each time, she'd grit her teeth and continue on her way, trying desperately not to stare at the back of Fili's blond head, forcing herself to stay at the back with Bilbo and Bofur and Nori.

* * *

"Air," Fili heard Bofur say. "I need air."

Fili had to blink, glance at his brother's dark head in front of him.

Things were beginning to spin around him, swirling and whirling erratically.

"My head," Oin was saying. "It's spinning."

Fili glanced back, briefly.

Ella.

There she was, trekking along next to Bofur, her hand on his shoulder as she hobbled along –

Wait. Hobbled?

Was she _limping_?

She looked like she was. Or maybe it was just a side effect of what she was having?

She hadn't talked to him, not since that night.

He didn't know how to go about approaching her – she'd looked so embarrassed, so horrified that night. Like she wished he hadn't come, that he hadn't appeared.

He hadn't known how to react.

And so he'd chosen not to talk to her, not until she said something first. What if his presence was the last thing she wanted?

Lost in his thoughts, he nearly crashed into Kili.

"Why've we stopped?" he muttered, peering over his brother's shoulder, as Oin yelled out: "What's happening?"

"Keep moving," Thorin called. "Nori, why have we stopped?"

"The path," said Nori, looking dazed. "It's disappeared!"

"What's going on?"

"We've lost the path!"

Fili looked ahead of them, and suddenly felt himself growing cold as he saw the cliff before Nori, saw exactly how the path had disappeared and why they had come to an abrupt halt.

"Find it," Thorin barked, sharply, and he glanced around. "All of you look. Look for the path!"

* * *

When the spiders appeared from out of nowhere and started to wrap them up in their cobwebs, Fili had tried to scramble towards Ella.

He remembered how she'd told him how terrified she was of insects and how she disliked animals, how she'd always been afraid of spiders most of all.

And here they were, surrounded by giant spiders attempting to wrap them up in cocoons.

Mirkwood wasn't helping, either, twisting everything he saw, making everything spin around him, distorting everything.

He looked over at Ella, saw her slip and fall, saw her press her hands to her face as one of the spiders began wrapping her in a silky cocoon, shuddering.

"Ella," he mumbled, staggering towards her, before thin, fine white strands wrapped around him.

* * *

"Fili."

Fili, Ella knew, hated being trapped. Hated being helpless.

She wanted to stumble over to him, damn her pride and her stupid leg.

But the spiders, the spiders were crawling over her, were surrounding her, were wrapping her in their fine thin webs.

She dropped to the ground, pressed the palms of her hands into her face, shuddering, shivering.

"Fili," she muttered to herself.

* * *

Somehow, trapped inside the white webbing that now encased him, Fili regained control of himself.

Kili, he knew, was somewhere about, but Fili knew his younger brother could take care of himself – hadn't he proven it, time and time again, on this journey?

No, it wasn't Kili he was so worried about.

"Ella," he mumbled, and then he began thrashing, kicking about in the cobweb.

The next thing he knew, he was falling through the air, falling and falling – and then, with a loud thump, he hit the ground.

He tore himself out of the web almost instantly.

"Ella," he said, again, and then called out, louder: "Ella!"

* * *

Ella had still been shuddering, shivering, when she began to fall through the air.

She couldn't help it.

She began to swear, expletive after expletive spilling out from her mouth as she spun in the air in her stupid cobweb.

And then she landed on the ground, her right leg below her.

Her injured leg.

She nearly screamed.

Pain was ripping through her, hot and sharp and dulling her senses, and she couldn't focus on anything, not on anything at all, the only thing rushing through her mind was the stinging and the aching and the hurting, because it was hurting, hurting so, so badly –

* * *

"Ella!"

It was Balin who tore away the webs surrounding her, Balin who hauled her to her feet, Balin whose eyes widened when she fell heavily on him, when he saw her blood beginning to seep through her pants leg.

"Don't bother about me," she managed to say, through gritted teeth, squeezing her eyes shut before forcing them open again. "Just do me a favour – help them kill the spiders first, please?"

And Balin stared at her, wide-eyed, for a moment; and then, abruptly, he turned and began to slash at the spiders now beginning to surround them once more.

* * *

It was Bifur who saw Ella stagger out of the cocoon and onto Balin, who watched as she collapsed to the ground after Balin had let go of her to kill the nearest spider.

And it was Bifur who scampered over and scooped her up in his arms.

Her eyes flew open. "Bifur - !"

He merely shook his head at her and glanced pointedly at the other dwarves battling the spiders.

And then, still carrying her in his arms as she twisted about, trying to find Fili, Bifur stumbled after the other dwarves as they stabbed and hacked at the spiders.

* * *

Fili had lost sight of her.

He'd seen Bifur's back, had seen the older dwarf scramble along with them, with Ella in his arms.

Fili didn't even want to think about why he'd chosen to carry her, about why she wasn't running instead.

And then what with the spiders and the mess of dwarves and Mirkwood in general, he lost sight of Bifur and the girl in his arms.

And then the elves appeared.

* * *

"Help!"

Fili whirled around almost instantly, forgetting that the elves had surrounded them with their bows drawn, forgetting that he was in absolutely no position to provide any aid.

"Kili!"

* * *

Kili wondered if this was what Fili felt, every time he looked at Ella.

He stared at the red-headed elf in front of him, her weapons still in her hands, her face stone-cold, unmoving, not even flushed from her kills.

He could hardly drag his eyes away from her, not even when she gestured for another pair of elves to haul him over to where the rest of the company stood.

He wondered what her name was.

* * *

"Search them."

"He's too blond," Bifur heard Ella murmur, as she turned her head slightly to look at the elf standing before them, as the other elves began to search them. "Too pretty. Is he supposed to be male?"

Bifur couldn't help himself.

He let out a low chuckle.

"Hey! Give it back!" Gloin was snapping at the blond dwarf, who had pulled a picture frame out of the dwarf's pocket. "That's private!"

"Who is this?" the blond elf asked, ignoring him completely. "Your brother?"

"That is my _wife_!"

"And what is this horrid creature? A goblin mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli!"

And a picture flashed into Ella's mind – of the blond elf, with another dwarf, one who resembled Gloin greatly – laughing, talking, grinning at each other. Friends.

"Fili," she said to Bifur, who glanced down at her. "Where's Fili?"

"What have you _done _to this human girl?"

The blond elf was standing in front of Bifur and Ella now, looking with some slight concern at Ella, before sweeping a contemptuous gaze over the rest of the company.

"I knew dwarves could not be trusted, but I never realised to what extent. To harm a human girl in such a way – "

"_Ella_!"

* * *

Fili would trust any of the company with his life.

And Bifur, he knew, would take care of Ella, as much as he could.

He didn't know why she was being carried, but perhaps her wound had started to sting again? Beorn had said that it might, which was why he'd given her the salve, after all.

He wanted to be there, wanted to be there by her side, but he'd probably be severely injured from his efforts before he even got near her. Bifur would take care of her. Bifur would make sure she was all right.

And so he stood, glaring, at the elf searching him, as he pulled out daggers and knives from all over his person – from his hidden pocket as well, that even Kili hadn't been able to find.

And then he heard that arrogant-looking blond elf demand exactly what they'd done to 'the human girl'.

Fili spun around, ignoring the elf searching him.

He saw Ella's right leg hanging limply, saw the blood-stained pants leg, saw that _stupid _blond elf continue standing there instead of actually doing something.

Ella.

Saw part of her face over Bifur's arm, saw it scrunch up in pain.

She was losing blood.

"_Ella_!"

* * *

The blond elf's arrow was already notched and pointed at Fili when the dwarf finally scrambled to the front, next to Bifur.

"Don't you come any closer, dwarf. You've done enough to this girl – "

"Why don't you stop threatening us and help her, then?" Fili snapped back, and he was hardly aware of the blond dwarf blinking, lowering his bow and arrow, as Fili turned to Ella.

"He's too pretty, Fili," he heard her whisper, in a hoarse voice, as he ripped some of the fabric off his shirt, wrapped it around her wound, wincing every time he made her flinch in pain. "He's too blond."

"I'm blond," he said.

"But you're not so pretty."

"Is that an insult?"

"I don't like pretty boys."

"A compliment, then."

"Smart dwarf."

* * *

Legolas watched with narrowed eyes as the girl was passed gently to the blond dwarf, her arms circling his neck, as she buried her face in his chest. As his ears pricked up and took in every word of their conversation.

He still had his bow and arrow ready, but gestured for the others to continue searching the rest of the dwarves.

"It hurts, Fili," he heard the human girl whisper hoarsely. "It hurts so bad."

"It's okay, Ella." The dwarf's grip around her tightened, and he looked worriedly over at the bleeding leg. "It's going to be okay."


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm sorry this took so long!**

**For all those who were waiting the next chapter, I hope this was worth the wait! I'm sorry, I know it's not fantastic!**

**But I hope you enjoy it somewhat, at the very least!**

* * *

"Give her to me."

Fili glared at the blond elf standing in front of him, and held Ella closer to him. "No."

"She requires aid." The red-headed she-elf, the one who had helped Kili, stepped up beside him. "Legolas means her no harm."

"Tauriel – "

The she-elf turned to face Legolas then, gave him a short, quick look, and he fell silent. She turned back to Fili. "I promise you that no harm shall come to her."

"I want to be with her."

Legolas raised his eyebrows, slightly.

They stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the dungeons, where the rest of his company was being shut into cells, and still the dwarf stubbornly refused to move, still held the dark, petite human girl in his arms.

"I'll be okay, Fee," the girl mumbled.

Fili glanced down at her worriedly. "Ella – "

"You didn't like the elves in Rivendell either," she reminded him, her voice soft.

"That was different."

"Really, I'll be fine," she said, and managed a smile at him. "I promise."

He stood there silently for a moment, Legolas and Tauriel still standing before him, not saying a word.

Finally, Fili nodded.

Ella found his hand and squeezed it, slightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," he said, his voice hoarse, and he pressed his lips to her forehead before, slowly, reluctantly, allowing Legolas to take her in his arms instead.

As one of the guards shoved him down the stairs, Fili strained and twisted back, his eyes fixed on Legolas' retreating figure, Tauriel alongside him.

* * *

"That dark-haired dwarf seemed very eager in speaking with you."

Tauriel glanced up, sharply, as Legolas laid the human girl down on the bed in her quarters.

He refused to look up at her, and instead moved to the window.

"He seems pleasant to converse with," she said, carefully, as she found the jar where she kept her store of athelas, and as she hunted for her other supplies. She thought, briefly, of the slip-up she had made in the dungeons, when Legolas had remarked that the dwarf stared at her, and she had replied with the statement that he was tall, for a dwarf. No. The dwarf was tall, and seemed someone she would not mind spending her time with, but that was all. Nothing more. "It matters not. She is our concern at the moment."

"Yes." Legolas turned to look at the human girl on the bed, her eyelids fluttering feebly. He moved a step closer. "Worry not. My name is Legolas, and this is Tauriel. We are here only to help."

"I know," the girl said, her voice weak. "I'm Ella."

"It is a lovely name," said Tauriel, as she moved to examine the wound. "Was this – was this caused by a Warg?"

"Yes."

Her voice sounded even weaker now.

Tauriel exchanged a glance with Legolas.

"It may be better," she said, in a low voice, "if she were unable to feel anything during her healing. Her wound may be much worse than I thought."

Legolas' eyes flickered to the girl on the bed, and he nodded.

* * *

"Were you talking about Kili?"

Legolas glanced up sharply, to look at the human girl now blinking herself awake, sleepily.

"You have not been asleep only for a few hours," he said.

"I feel much better now," she said. "Thank you – for, whatever it was you gave me, that anaesthetic or whatever. That reduced the pain."

"Your wound was severe," Legolas informed her. "We found traces of previous healing attempts, but we have had it stitched as well. Tauriel has healed you well, but we have had it done as a precaution."

"So that was what hurt so much." Ella winced. "Well, thank you."

"It is Tauriel you must thank."

Ella looked at him, curiously – watched him as his face remained blank and expressionless, but saw his eyes change as he spoke of the red-headed elf.

"You care for her," she said, in surprise.

"What?"

Legolas' eyes were back on her, now turning hard.

She looked at him uncertainly. "I – I meant, the elf just now, Tauriel or something – "

"It is utter nonsense, that which you speak." He turned his face away. "So who is Kili?"

"He's one of the dwarves," Ella said, and watched as Legolas relaxed slightly. "The dark-haired one. I just heard you talking earlier, before you gave me that funny thing that made me feel all strange and fuzzy and numb – "

"Ah."

There was a tense silence for a moment.

"When can I – when can I go join them?" she asked, uncertainly.

He turned to face her again. "You wish to join them?"

"Well, yes."

"When we would give you this room in which you could heal in safely?"

"They're my friends," Ella told him. "I want to be with them. So even though I am immensely grateful that you helped me, I would like to go back to Fi – to them."

"You were going to say that dwarf's name," said Legolas.

"What?"

"That dwarf that refused to let you go."

Ella turned pink and shrugged awkwardly.

"You know," she said, "I've probably been awake less than ten minutes in total around you two, but if you really do like her, you should let her know."

"Stop speaking such nonsense."

"Well, it's either that, or someone else is going to make a move on her first."

"I told you to stop talking."

"You shouldn't live life with regrets. Especially if you're immortal."

Legolas chose not to reply.

Ella shrugged, again, and fell silent.

She figured it was probably not the best idea to irritate or anger the people who had healed her.

"So what is it, exactly," Legolas said, "that would require a young human girl to travel with a company of thirteen dwarves through Mirkwood, with a wound from a Warg, and who is romantically involved with one of the members of this company?"

She turned pink. "That is none of your concern."

Legolas looked at her for a long moment. "It may be wiser to say."

"I'm really thankful for your help and everything, but it really is not your business," she said. "For all you know, I could be here just for – just for Fili."

And then something struck her suddenly.

_Thirteen dwarves._

Not a mention of Bilbo.

A smile flickered over Legolas' face.

"We thought that the dwarves had taken you against your will, but apparently it is not so." He moved to the doorway, stopped and looked back at her. "It matters not what you wish to tell us. I'll have you sent to your friends soon."

And Ella was left lying on the bed in an empty room.

* * *

"_Ella_!"

Fili all but threw himself at the bars of his cell when he saw her hobbling down the stairs alongside the red-haired she-elf from before, who was guiding her, gently. "Ella, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, as she came to a halt before his cell. "Could you - ?"

Fili blinked at her a moment, still registering the fact that she was standing before him, an arm length away, before moving back slightly so that the guard could open the door.

Ella slipped inside and the door was slammed shut behind her almost instantly.

She didn't even wait for the elf to leave before she flung her arms around Fili, burying her head in his shoulder.

"It's nice to see you too, Ella," Kili called out from his cell.

"Stupid Kili," Ella muttered into Fili's shoulder, but raised her head, grinning, to call back, "Nice to see you too, Kili."

"What did they do to you?" Fili asked her, still standing with his arms around her.

It had been stupid, so stupid, distancing himself from her.

What had he been thinking?

"Stitched it up," said Ella, glancing down at her leg. "Hopefully it'll last longer than Beorn's did."

Fili just nodded, jerkily, led Ella over to the side of the cell and helped her settle onto the ground. Still on his feet, he froze as Ella caught hold of his hand; lightly, not pulling him down, but holding him there, next to her.

She looked up at him, uncertainly. "I – I missed you talking to me."

Fili dropped down onto the ground next to her. "I thought you didn't want to talk to _me_."

"What?" She widened her eyes. "Fili, you are the _best_ thing that's happened to me since I came here."

"You looked so horrified that night – "

"I was just embarrassed," Ella said, turning pink. "It's not – I don't – uhm."

Fili chuckled then, a low chuckle that made Ella smile hopefully, and he pulled her close and held her there. "You didn't make an effort to talk to me."

"I thought you didn't want to talk to me! I wasn't going to start talking to you if you weren't going to talk to me."

"Talk about pride."

"It's terrible, isn't it?"

"Absolutely horrendous."

"Dreadful."

"Disgusting."

And with each word, they moved closer and closer together, until Fili tilted her head and pulled her lips to his.

* * *

"They love each other."

Legolas glanced up, sharply, at Tauriel. "Who?"

"The girl," Tauriel said, sounding surprised, as if it should have been obvious – and Legolas admitted that the strange human girl with the odd contraption over her eyes should have been the first thing to spring to mind, if his head hadn't already been filled with a tall, strong elf with hair the colour of fire. "And the dwarf. The blond one."

Legolas looked over at the cell the blond dwarf had been thrown into, the cell that Tauriel had insisted the human girl be placed into also.

From their vantage point on the stairs leading down to the dungeons, he could see them leaning against the wall, the blond dwarf's arm wrapped around the girl's shoulders, pulling her close, her head on his shoulder as they spoke to each other in low voices.

"I suppose they do."

He could see the way the dwarf looked at the girl, the way he held his arm so protectively around her, like he would never willingly let her go.

He could see the way the girl looked at the dwarf, like he was the only thing she could see, the only thing that mattered.

How was it fair, that a dwarf and a human could fall in love, two species so similar yet so different from each other, when he loved someone so deeply who would probably never return his love?

Legolas turned to glance at Tauriel, saw her eyes clouding over slightly at the sight of the human girl and the dwarf.

He cleared his throat. "Tauriel."

She straightened up then, suddenly, as if startled, and her eyes turned sharp, focussed. "Yes. I will report to your father now."

_That wasn't what I wanted to say_, Legolas thought; but what did he want to say?

Tauriel nodded to him, briefly, before disappearing.

* * *

Her hair, Kili thought, was like fire.

He smiled faintly, to himself, when he thought of how she'd locked him in his cell.

_"Aren't you going to search me? There could be anything down my trousers."_

_ "Or nothing."_

She was an elf, all right – but she was tall and beautiful and fierce and brave and strong.

He wondered if he would see her again.

He glanced over at Fili's cell, where Ella now resided, curled up in Fili's arms.

Kili was jealous of his brother.

Not because he cared for Ella. He _liked_ Ella, that was for sure – he liked to talk to her, to make her laugh and stutter and blush. But he didn't care for her, not the way that Fili so obviously did.

No, he was jealous because Fili _had_ Ella – someone who would so stay by him no matter what, someone who cared for him so deeply and so much, someone who made him smile and laugh and make him feel whole (because that was what Fili said having Ella around felt like – being whole, even though there hadn't seemed to be anything missing beforehand), someone whom he needed and who needed him.

It was obvious, so obvious, that Fili was completely in love with the human girl, even if they hadn't known each other for very long.

And it was obvious that Ella felt the same way about him.

He wondered what it would be like, to love someone so much and to be loved in return.

Kili fished the runestone, his runestone, out from one of his hidden pockets.

His mind drifted to the red-headed elf.

Her hair like fire, he thought, to match her soul.

* * *

"Is there any way out?" Ella asked Fili.

Fili shrugged. "I doubt it." He glanced around, briefly, then lowered his voice. "I have a feeling Balin got angry with Thorin just now, before you came back."

"Why?"

Balin, Ella remembered, looked up to Thorin greatly; even with Thorin's faults, which Balin already knew and accepted, it was difficult for the old dwarf to ever get angry with him.

"Thorin spoke to the Elven King earlier. Thranduil. Apparently Thranduil offered him a deal, but Thorin told him to _ish kakhfê ai'd dur rugnu_."

"I'm guessing," Ella said, dryly, "that that's not a compliment."

Fili chuckled, slightly. "Far from it. Balin was not impressed. Unless Bilbo magically finds a way out – "

"That's right, where _is _Bilbo?"

"He managed to disappear, when the elves captured us – probably like what happened with the goblins." Fili frowned, slightly. "I don't know how he'd manage to get into here, though. It'd be difficult."

"Don't underestimate him," said Ella. "I think Bilbo's going to find a way out. I _know_ he will."

"What makes you so sure?"

She turned away, slightly. "Just a feeling."

"Must be a strong feeling."

"Well, we can't be stuck in here forever, can we?"

Fili nodded, thoughtfully.

* * *

Ella, Thorin thought, needed Fili. And Fili needed her.

He was, naturally, not entirely happy with this.

But, he had to admit, grudgingly, better her than some annoying female he couldn't stand. At least Ella was empathic and understood him quite well – she could talk, but she knew how to stay silent as well.

Sometimes, when he did spend time with her, he had the feelings she enjoyed silence as much as he did.

He could see how happy she made Fili, and how happy he made her. He couldn't understand it – yes, Ella was clearly _not_ an average human teenaged girl, but she still seemed quite ordinary to him – nothing special. Yet every time Fili looked at her, there was something in his eyes, some sort of spark that never seemed to dim or fade.

And she never pulled Fili away from Kili. Even though it was clear Ella was always on Fili's mind, he still looked out for his little brother, still stuck to him and made sure he stayed safe.

Yes, Thorin thought. He might not entirely, but Eleanor Aidan wasn't the worst choice that Fili could have made.


End file.
